Biofertilizers for Agriculture and Reclamation of Disturbed Lands: An Eco-friendly Resource for Plant Nutrition

The interest in using microbial inoculant-based biofertilizers is growing in recent years for sustainable agriculture and seedling production systems. Currently, nutrient management and fertilization practices in agricultural sectors are mainly dependent on extensive use of inorganic chemical-based agrochemicals. The use of traditional chemical fertilizers and pesticides may cause a danger to the environment, human health, and pollution of natural resources. Biofertilizers are composed of beneficial microbial inoculants, either alone or in consortium including bacteria, fungi, algae, actinomycetes, and mycorrhizas. Biofertilizers can be regarded as eco-friendly constituents of organic crop production methods and function to improve long-term soil fertility, soil health and sustainability. Furthermore, adding biofertilizer in revegetation programs for degraded land may combat against the loss of biodiversity and destruction of soil microbial communities. Microbial inoculation studies with Kuwait native plants demonstrated a successful inoculation of arbascular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal, rhizobial, and free-living Nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and exhibited a positive response in seedling growth and nutrient uptake when compared to non-inoculated seedlings.