Beneficial Microbes for Sustainable Agricultural Production

The Indian agricultural scenario has witnessed a sea change in production and productivity over the past decades – from a mere 522 kg/ha of food grains that include cereals and pulses in 1950–51 to over 2040 kg/ha during 2015–16 (www.indiaagristat.com). Similarly, the horticulture sector has also made a tremendous and impressive progress, and horticultural production during 2018–19 is expected to be an all-time high of 314.67 million tonnes from 25.87 million hectares. The major challenge in the years to come is to sustain the production from the diminishing natural resources of land, water and nonavailability of skilled manpower.