Green input in agriculture: An overview

Abstract

Agriculture, the mainstay of every country's economy, contributes to the overall economic growth, and change in its structure has a subsequent impact on the present socioeconomic life of the population. World population is expected to grow over a third or 2.3 billion people between 2009 and 2050 and nearly this entire forecast to take place in the developing countries. In this stage natural disaster like floods, droughts, climate change, and volatility has played a major role in raising the risk of production deficits. Moreover the increased rate of population growth demands more production of food. Therefore to achieve the increasing demand of agricultural production, a sizable quantity of mineral fertilizers will be needed to accept the challenge. Agricultural fertilizers are indispensable to enhance proper growth and crop yield. To raise the productivity, farmers have been using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The high input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides makes threats for disproportionate supplement of nutrients to crops and deterioration of soil health and endangers ecosystems, plants, human, and animal lives. Therefore, there is an urgent need for proportionate application of green inputs, viz., microbe-based biofertilizers to stop the adverse effect of chemical fertilizers which would unravel these problems and make the ecosystem healthier and improve the physicochemical properties of the soil. The demand for biofertilizers goes on increasingly due to its eco-friendly nature, and therefore intensive research is needed to improve the quality and activity to achieve food security for the growing population and restore soil health. This book chapter exhibited the necessary information on PGPRs and their immense potentiality on crop development and their future outlook for the economic development.