Harnessing Microbial Consortia for Sustainable Agriculture: Abiotic and Biotic Stress Mitigation.

Increasing biotic and abiotic pressures such as soil salinity, drought, pests, pathogens, and soil fertility loss threaten global food security. Consequently, agricultural productivity and sustainability are severely compromised. The mitigation of these complex challenges will be required to build effective, climate-resilient farming systems. Microbial consortia, composed of interacting bacterial and fungal species, are emerging powerful tools in sustainable agriculture. The synergistic communities surpass single-strain inoculants by promoting plant growth, enhancing nutrient uptake, improving soil fertility, and increasing plant resilience to both biotic (e.g., pathogens, pests) and abiotic (e.g., drought, salinity) stresses. The present review provides a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge on the structure, mechanisms, and role in agriculture of microbial consortia. It explores their use as bio-fertilizers, biopesticides, and bio stimulants, detailing the biological pathways involved such as phytohormone synthesis, induced systemic resistance, and antagonism against pathogens. The review discusses how the various forms of microbial consortia, which include similar and mixed bacterial and fungal microbial consortia, have been used in horticulture, cereals, and fiber crops, and the documented effectiveness in various forms of stressors, both biotic and abiotic, in field and controlled conditions.