Biological Control Agents and Their Importance for the Plant Health

Abstract

Biological control agents (BCAs) play an interesting role in improving plant health in the world. BCAs include three groups such as microbes, animals, and plants. The big difference among groups constitutes a difference in the method of enhancing plant health. The first group includes viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi, whereas the second group involves nematodes, mites, spiders, and insects. The third group includes trees and many plants. The BCAs keep the pest under the accepted range. Generally, the ability of these three groups toward the plants can be determined through direct method, indirect method, and/or a combination of both methods. The direct method is more interesting and can be utilized for the management of plant pathogens, pests, and weeds (plant enemies) by directly targeting the plant enemies. On the other hand, the indirect method is not so effective and mainly operates either by controlling or by determining the growth of the plant enemies. Among different BCAs, microbes offer high efficacy and are easy to produce. Therefore, in this, we have an attempt to explore the plant beneficial organisms that can be used as BCAs as biopesticides as well as biofertilizers.