Biological Control Based on Microbial Consortia – From Theory to Commercial Products

Biological control based on the use of (artificial) consortia of plant beneficial microorganisms, (the combinations of several biological control bacterial or fungal strains or a mixture of both) is receiving an increasing recognition globally. Thus far, however the number of marketed bioproducts containing microbial consortia is scarce. This situation results primarily from difficulties encountered during registration and marketing but also because of the problems in understanding the specific roles of each component of a consortium as well as their biological activity. Certain limitation for developing artificial consortia for agriculture is furthermore the compatibility of the biocontrol agents in the consortium and their collective performance on the plants under natural and/or agricultural conditions. This chapter provides insight into current state of the art in the development of the artificial microbial consortia for the agricultural applications and their commercialization mainly for plant protection and for biofertilization to increase plant fitness and crop yield.