Trichoderma as a potent bioprimer for horticultural crops

Abstract

In current changing agricultural production system increased use of agrochemicals to prevent plant diseases, pests for enhancing the crop production has become a major concern. The current farming practices are having significant impact on pest and disease resurgence, reduced soil organic carbon leading to degraded soil health, and has detrimental effects on ecosystem. Therefore, one of the feasible alternatives is microbial intervention in crop production. Numerous bacteria and fungi, especially endophytic fungi, work as plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Among the scientists and farmers microbial inoculants products based on Trichoderma are getting emphasis because of their potential to increase crop output, nutritional quality, and resistance to a variety of environmental challenges like pests and plant pathogens. Moreover, Trichoderma as bioinoculant has much higher potential to be disseminated and used at mass level as its culture preparation, multiplication, and application is very simple resulting to become more adaptable to the farmers. In this chapter, numerous horticultural crops have been extensively explored for the use of Trichoderma species as bioinoculant. They also enhance soil fertility and control pathogens, among other advantages. However, there are numerous commercial formulations of Trichoderma sp. available in the market. Multiple carrier materials, including talc, plant growth medium (PGM), rice bran, coco peat, and coconut husk, are utilized to extend the shelf life of microbial products. The usage of Trichoderma sp. carrier formulation varies depending on the crop’s adaptability, its availability, and the farmer’s preference. Talc-based formulations are frequently utilized among the many Trichoderma formulations. © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.