Soil microbiome: An intrinsic driver for climate smart agriculture

Abstract

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a sustainable approach that safeguards environmental health management without compromising crop productivity. CSA ensures resource recycling and carbon sequestration with a reduction in GHG emissions. It is directly linked to the soil health which in turn is governed by the soil microbiome performing various physiological functions. The soil microbiome drives the nutrient cycles and ensures the availability of various macro and micronutrients to the plants. The environmental stresses and biased chemical treatment have completely changed the microbial diversity and richness in the soil which in turn alters the soil biochemistry. At basic resource level both the symbiotic and non-symbiotic plant microbe interactions can address these emerging issues. The non-symbiotic association provides the pool of microbes for the rhizospheric community and helps endophyte recruitments that in some cases even inherited and carried to the next generation via seeds. The endophyte recruitment process and its possible symbiotic role requires extensive investigation since it is directly related to plant productivity. Various agriculture practices and their relation to soil biodiversity and soil food web are crucial for the effective management of soil organic carbon. The designed microbial community pathway could ensure carbon sequestration and create new biochemical linkages to support overall richness of the ecosystem. CSA has three most accepted pillars namely adaptive capacity, mitigation, and productivity. The review develops the linkages between CSA and soil microbiome for efficient execution of CSA activities. The other tools which can support CSA and can influence even soil microbiome include application of weather data analysis and prediction, application of AI tools and metadata analysis and advanced cost effective machinery for minimizing the chemical stress in the agriculture ecosystem. The policies and regulations can further improve the intervention process to effectively implement CSA so that the ecological services can be restored in favour of soil organic carbon and carbon sequestration through microbial community.

Keywords

• Carbon sequestration
• GHG emissions
• Soil organic matters
• Soil organic carbon
• Rhizosphere
• Endophytes