Fungi for Future Farming: Enhancing Nutrient Uptake and Stress Resilience in Sustainable Development Era
TL;DR
The role of PGPF in climate-resilient cropping systems and circular bioeconomy frameworks, including waste valorization and biofertilizer development is highlighted and key limitations such as host specificity, environmental variability, and scalability challenges are identified.
Abstract
: Plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) are a diverse group of non-pathogenic fungi that benefit host plants through multiple mechanisms. With the growing global emphasis on sustainable agriculture, research has increasingly focused on understanding fungal ecology and its role in enhancing plant growth and development. PGPF contributes significantly by facilitating nutrient acquisition, solubilizing minerals, producing growth hormones, and transferring essential elements from the soil to plants. PGPF have been proposed as biofertilizers, bio-stimulants, and/or biocontrol agents for a variety of plant species in earlier research findings. Modern biotechnological tools can help uncover plant-PGPF interactions, facilitating the development of crop-specific bioinoculants. This review critically evaluates PGPF as drivers of sustainable agriculture by bridging mechanistic insights with field-level applications. Unlike previous descriptive reviews, this study integrates nutrient acquisition, stress resilience mechanisms, and real-world efficacy under varying environmental conditions. We highlight the role of PGPF in climate-resilient cropping systems and circular bioeconomy frameworks, including waste valorization and biofertilizer development. Furthermore, we identify key limitations such as host specificity, environmental variability, and scalability challenges. Finally, future research directions including omics-driven inoculant design and microbiome engineering are proposed. This review provides a novel, integrative perspective on the application of PGPF in sustainable agriculture.