Microbial Pesticides and Inoculants Production - A Promising Technology to Chemical Pesticides

Abstract

The conventional agrochemical pesticides tend to be broad-spectrum products that impact many different kinds of organisms. These products allow farmers to control numerous pests with one agrochemical, but can also negatively impact other non-harmful species in the environment. Conventional chemical pesticides can also cause environmental pollution because of the residual chemical. Therefore, Microbial pesticides use microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoans and yeasts. Microbes use the toxic metabolites produced to destroy and prevent the growth of pests.They also tend to decompose quickly and leave fewer residues on food and in the environment. Microbial pesticides tend to be highly targeted to specific pests. Because they are so targeted, they are generally considered to be more environmentally friendly than synthetic agrochemicals. For example, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a bacteria that is frequently employed as a microbial pesticide comes in a variety of strains and subspecies, and each one is capable of killing a single insect or a small number of closely related insect species while remaining harmless to other creatures (including people and animals). Nevertheless, this review discusses the media for microbial pesticide production, use of organic and inorganic carriers for microbial pesticide production, inoculation of the substrate for microbial pesticide production, use of microorganisms as microbial pesticides, culture techniques for microbial pesticides, and inoculants production, as well as the benefits of microbial pesticides over chemical pesticides.