article · Scientifica
Global population growth and food security concerns have intensified efforts to protect crop yields from harmful plant pathogens. While synthetic fungicides have traditionally controlled crop diseases, their documented side effects have motivated a transition towards environmentally friendly alternatives. Microbial biofungicides offer a sustainable option and have delivered notable results, yet their widespread adoption is restricted by practical drawbacks. Specifically, microbial alternatives often exhibit lower effectiveness, shorter shelf life, and limited accessibility for farmers worldwide, preventing the complete elimination of synthetic chemicals from the market. Consequently, an integrated disease management strategy combining microbial biofungicides with reduced doses of synthetic fungicides has emerged as a viable compromise. Assessing the relative benefits and drawbacks of microbial biofungicides highlights their current standing and clarifies how complementary treatments can balance environmental safety with reliable crop protection.
Feeding an expanding global population requires safeguarding harvest yields without causing ecological damage. Synthetic pesticides carry environmental and health risks, but purely biological alternatives currently lack the durability and availability needed for universal adoption. Exploring integrated management strategies that combine biofungicides with lower chemical doses helps identify pragmatic pathways towards safer, more sustainable agriculture.
The primary application is crop disease management for growers seeking sustainable inputs. Microbial biofungicides exist in the market but suffer from shelf-life and performance constraints. Near-term commercialisation appears best suited to integrated treatment programmes or co-formulations that combine biological agents with reduced chemical fungicide doses, offering agricultural input manufacturers and distributors an intermediate pathway while fully biological substitutes mature.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
These days, two important issues are causing concern in the global community: the alarmingly growing trend of the human population and the issue of food security. To this end, people around the world have been searching for solutions that could feed the needy in a sustainable way. In response to this urgent call, scientists from around the world started working on increasing crop production and productivity by controlling crop pathogens that could harm the productivity of crops. Synthetic fungicides have been in use for controlling crop diseases for several decades, but later, due to the evidenced side effects of the fungicides, there have been attempts to shift towards a less cost-effective and eco-friendly method of controlling crop diseases, and so far, many remarkable results have been achieved. However, due to the less effective and shorter shelf life of microbial biofungicides, as well as the less accessibility of these microbial biofungicides to growers around the world, it became difficult to remove the fungicides totally from the market. To minimize this problem, researchers suggested an integrated approach: the combination of microbial biofungicides with a reduced dose of synthetic fungicides. Hence, this review explored the status as well as the merits and demerits of microbial biofungicides as compared to synthetic fungicides.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1155/2024/5322696
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
