Microbiome Role in Control of Sustenance of Rice Health and Production

Plant pathogens are an emerging threat to global food security leading to severe losses of economically important food crops. Rice, catering 40% of global population, faces tremendous yield and economic losses due to pathogen incidences. Today, agriculture practices are more bound to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers for disease management and improved crop yields. Thus, the crop protection product sector is becoming a fast developing industry in order to compel with the growing population and need to minimize crop damage. This entails the usage of chemicals for crop protection in a judicious manner within the national, confined regulatory framework. However, the application of high doses of chemical pesticides and fertilisers in intensive farming practices negatively affects both human health and natural ecosystems. Hence, there is the urgent demand for the use of safer, environmentally sound and sustainable alternative technologies for profitable crop production. Therefore, the present chapter fosters majorly on the different biological and molecular approaches for disease management.