Sterilization of soils by pasteurisation, fumigation, or
autoclaving usually allows the pathogen to proliferate giving
the opportunity to the biocontrol agent to express its
antagonistic activity under optimal conditions for the target’s
growth. Thus, the results from these experiments clearly
suggested the antagonistic relationship between the pathogen and the biocontrol agent. Other observations have noted that in nonsterile soils the native microflora slowed up the growth
of the pathogen giving the opportunity to the biocontrol agent
to express its antimicrobial activity more effectively [