Biochar amendments and its impact on soil biota for sustainable agriculture
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REVIEW
Biochar amendments and its impact on soil biota for sustainable agriculture Abhijeet Pathy1 · Jyotiprakash Ray1 · Balasubramanian Paramasivan1 Received: 19 April 2020 / Accepted: 31 August 2020 / Published online: 24 September 2020 © Shenyang Agricultural University 2020
Abstract Beneficial microbes in soil biota are known to enhance plant growth by stimulating the nutrient supply and by devising certain mechanisms to cope up with the biotic (diseases) or abiotic (salinity, drought, and pollution) stresses. Owing to their effectiveness and sustainability concerns, the application of microbes in the agricultural sector has seen a positive surge recently. Biochar has been commended as an exemplary carrier material for beneficial microbes in the soil ecosystem. Biochar is generally produced from the waste biomasses, which not only resolve the management crisis of agricultural wastes but also render many benefits such as enhancement of soil properties, alteration of nutritional dynamics, removal of pollutants, and in the stimulation of beneficial microbial diversity in soil. The strategic application of biochar in agricultural land could help provide agronomic, economic, and environmental benefits. Since certain risks are associated with the application of biochar, attention needs to be paid while preferring for soil amendments. This present review focused on highlighting the role of microbes in plant growth. The influence of biochar on soil biota along with its detailed mechanisms was discussed further to delineate the scope of biochar in soil amendments. Further, the risks associated with the biochar amendments and the future perspectives in this research arena were highlighted. Keywords Biochar · Sustainable agriculture · Soil biota · Microbes · Plant growth · Microbial interaction
1 Introduction The main challenge with the current agriculture practice is to increase productivity in a more sustainable and environment friendly manner (Patel et al. 2015; Hamilton et al. 2016). Postgreen revolution agricultural practices increased their reliance on chemical fertilizer for ensuring higher productivity. Chemical fertilizers do increase productivity, but at the same time, jeopardize the sustainability of the environment by engendering major ecological imbalances such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, incorporation of heavy metals in living organisms, etc. (Srivastav et al. 2020; Ye et al. 2020). Consequences of the dramatic change in global climate, rapid urbanization, and extensive use of agrochemicals have collectively affected crop production worldwide and * Balasubramanian Paramasivan [email protected] 1
Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha 769008, India
created an odious situation for food security (Glick 2014; Rashid et al. 2016). The decrease in fertile agricultural lands is further endangering the global food security. The generation of a significant amount of agricultural
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