Improving Phosphorus Fertility in Soil through Microbial Mediators

Abstract

Microbes are an important element of the phosphorus cycle operative in the soil and play significant roles in transference of phosphorus between various soil phosphorus pools. Therefore, there has been continued interest in the usage of soil microbes to improve the phosphorus nutrition of plants and increase the overall efficiency of phosphorus use in agricultural systems. This interest originates from the fact that insufficiency of phosphorus is a common problem in soils all over the world, that a foremost cost for agricultural production is due to phosphate fertilizers and that the efficacy of phosphorus used by plants from soil applied phosphate fertilizers is very poor. Hence, with such issues the role of soil microbes in increasing phosphorus fertility in soils becomes more important. In this review several such aspects concerning the solubilisation and mobilization of soil phosphorus by microorganisms for enhancing soil fertility are discussed.