Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Amelioration of pesticide hazard in leafy vegetables and soil health by inoculation of pesticide tolerant microbial consortia |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Mohammad Shahid, National Bureau Of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Uttar Pradesh |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2025 |
Contact info : | shahidfaiz5@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | The productivity of leafy vegetable crops often suffers from the insect-pest competition. And hence, to protect crops from the damaging impact of such inhibitory agents, pesticides including insecticides and herbicides are applied consistently. The extensive and ever-increasing use of these agrochemicals in agricultural practices has acquired considerable importance due to direct and indirect environmental hazards. This in turn, negatively influences soil fertility and declines both the quantity and quality of foods which deleteriously influence the health of human beings.
Over the years, the long-term persistence of pesticides in agricultural soils has resulted in their accumulation in various organs including fruits/grains of agriculturally important crops. Hence, pesticides taken up by plants are ultimately transferred via various trophic levels in the human/animal food chain. Pesticide uptake and transport by various plant organs can cause serious harm to essential metabolic activities, resulting in plant death. The astoundingly higher centralizations of pesticides disturb cell organelles and layer penetrability, respiratory cycle, and carb digestion, physiologically dynamic catalysts and proteins, photosystems by hindering the powerful quantum yield of PSII and quantum productivity of PSII (v) oxidative harm and hereditary cosmetics of cell apparatus.
Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to find inexpensive and ecologically sustainable options to eliminate pesticide risks. Due to these, it has become pertinent to develop a cost-effective and viable approach to clean up or even minimize tolerable limits of the pesticide-contaminated sites and subsequently preserve the deteriorating environment. So, an alternative method of pesticide degradation/detoxification needs to be developed and practiced. In this context, bioremediation and biodegradation have provided some solutions to pesticide detoxification problems. This strategy frequently alluded to as "microbial remediation" depends on the revelation of strong microorganisms to change over natural poisons in its less difficult and innocuous structure and consequently, relieve pesticide contamination.
Numerous pesticides degrading microbes endowed with potential plant growth-promoting activities have been identified. These pesticide degrading microbes when applied as bio inoculants, provide benefits to plants by (i) supplying phytohormones and (ii) protecting plants directly/indirectly from various phytopathogens by producing HCN and antimicrobial compounds and siderophores (iii) providing micro and macronutrients and solubilizing insoluble P and (iv) synthesizing ACC deaminase.
There is a serious knowledge gap in the molecular foundation of multiple pesticidal impacts on edible leafy vegetables and degradation of multiple pesticides by potent and tolerant PGPR strains and also there conflicting reports are available on the toxicity of pesticides to plant-microbe interactions. |
Organizations involved