Microbial Production of Biopesticides for Sustainable Agriculture

Madan Lal Verma (), Ashutosh Kumar, Anjani Devi Chintagunta, Prashant Jeevan Kumar Samudrala, Marc Bardin and Eric Lichtfouse
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Madan Lal Verma: Department of Biotechnology, School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology Una, Una 177209, Himachal Pradesh, India
Ashutosh Kumar: ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science, Kushmaur, Mau 275103, Uttar Pradesh, India
Anjani Devi Chintagunta: Vignan Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Vadlamudi, Guntur 522213, Andhra Pradesh, India
Prashant Jeevan Kumar Samudrala: ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science, Kushmaur, Mau 275103, Uttar Pradesh, India
Marc Bardin: INRAE, Pathologie Végétale, Montfavet, 84140 Avignon, France
Eric Lichtfouse: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-28

Abstract: Food security is threatened by biotic stress on crops, e.g., from invasive pests, in the context of climate change. Pest control has traditionally been achieved using synthetic pesticides, yet pollution and the persistence and toxicity of some pesticides are inducing food contamination and, in turn, generating public concern. As a consequence, biopesticides are increasingly used, notably for organic crops. For instance, some microorganisms produce biopesticidal compounds such as secondary metabolites or growth-inhibitory enzymes. Most reviews on this topic mainly focus on describing microbial species and their active compounds. However, there are very few studies and reviews describing various process parameters. Here, we review both microbial biopesticides and factors controlling physicochemical conditions for the scaling up of biopesticide production. We present biopesticides from bacteria (e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis ), algae, fungi, and viruses and review the biocontrol mechanisms and applications of commercial biopesticides. The benefits of genetic engineering for enhancing activity and drawbacks such as commercialization are also discussed.

Keywords: agriculture; biocontrol; biopesticides; microbes; strain improvement; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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