Prospecting the roles of metabolites and additives in future bioformulations for sustainable agriculture

Addition of beneficial microorganisms as plant growth promoting (PGP) rhizobacteria (PGPR) and fungi (PGPF) for augmenting plant growth and inhibiting phytopathogens is now more than a century old story, but still we are only in the lag phase concerning the use of microbe based products in agriculture. The benefits of microbe based products, known by various names such as biofertilizers, biostimulants, bioinoculants, biopesticides, bioformulations, certainly are huge in respect to the sustainability they provide and being eco-friendly. Still the constraints associated with quality, reliability and performance are hampering their progress in the market. Due to these constraints the bioformulations are lacking far behind the chemicals. Hence, new avenues and directions have to be explored so as to remove the associated problems and instigate belief amongst the end users/farmers. Current research is already showing the trends for the development of formulations which will be more reliable and consistent. Inoculation of PGP microbes along with metabolites is showing great promise, proving to be more effective with multiple roles and hence showing the way for the development of future bioformulations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.