Role of Microbes in Plant Health, Disease Management, and Abiotic Stress Management

Plant yield, productivity, and food quality are highly influenced by several abiotic and biotic stresses. Agricultural stresses and associated food security issues require the optimization of reliability, efficient use of resources, and mitigation of the environmental impacts of food production. Agricultural sustainability challenges are directly linked to social, environmental, and economic factors. Biotic factor of stresses, which derive from dealings with other microorganisms as well as macroorganisms, chiefly includes damage or infection by various pests or pathogens. The abiotic factors of stresses include severe temperatures, droughts, stagnation, environmental contaminants, and salinity. Plants undergo various physiological, molecular, and biochemical changes under these environmental stresses that impact overall plant development and growth. Different strategies and mechanisms may be used to control these stresses in plants, e.g., chemical pesticides, which, however, are inefficient and detrimental to the environment. Alternate or unusual answers target to develop ecofriendly approaches by employing biological or live agents that mitigate abiotic stresses and improve disease resistance by reinforcement of natural defense system of plants. In this chapter, we have focused on the role of microbes in plant health and disease and abiotic stress management by summarizing current knowledge of the field, covering all aspects of stress agriculture, and further discussing important mechanisms used by microbes in mitigating these stresses.