Agricultural microbiology is a field of study concerned with plant-associated microbes. It aims to address problems in agricultural practices usually caused by a lack of biodiversity in microbial communities. An understanding of microbial strains relevant to agricultural applications is useful in the enhancement of factors such as soil nutrients, plant-pathogen resistance, crop robustness, fertilization uptake efficiency, and more. The many symbiotic relationships between plants and microbes can ultimately be exploited for greater food production necessary to feed the expanding human populace, in addition to safer farming techniques for the sake of minimizing ecological disruption.
Strains of free-living bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, and protozoa have coevolved with a variety of plants to produce symbiotic relationships that often benefit one or more of the organisms involved. A majority of these plant growth promoting organisms colonize the surface of plant roots, known as the rhizosphere [1]. Among these, there are three major groups of microbial inoculants used on agricultural crops: