Role of Microbes for Attaining Enhanced Food Crop Production

The global production of food crops is on increase but the perpetual accrual of demographic strain has posed a challenge toward the attainment of global food security. In spite of covering several milestones in enhancing global food production, in a total of 821 million people, one out of nine still sleeps with an empty stomach each night, and one in three has to face the evil of malnutrition. Comprehensively, the world hunger is appraised to have augmented since 2014, as assessed in terms of both percentage and the absolute number of population. Unambiguously, Africa had the highest prevalence of undernourishment, representing 27.4% of its entire population, whereas Asia accounts for 64% of the total malnourished people across the world. Surprisingly, India also serves as a home to one-fourth of all malnourished people worldwide, which makes this country a key focus for confronting the hunger on an international scale. Therefore, in a quest to increase food production, microbes can play tremendous role due to their various incredible potentials. The microflora associated with plants have fabulous potential to improve plant resilience and produce in farming systems. The judicial employment of microbes or their metabolites can heighten nutrient uptake and yield, control pests, and mitigate plant stress responses. The unhidden potential of microbes makes them potent biocontrol agents and promotes their application as biofertilizers and their role as agents for improving soil health along with their plant growth promotion attributes that warrant their employment in agroecosystems for enhancing crop production. Therefore, the present review targets different stratagems which advocate the role of microbes for enhancing the quality and quantity of the produce.