Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) Fungi as a Tool for Sustainable Agricultural System

*Kavita Chahal, Vaishali Gupta, Naveen Kumar Verma, Anand Chaurasia and Babita Rana*

## **Abstract**

A sustainable agriculture is a type of agriculture that focuses on producing long-term crops and livestock without having any adverse effect on the environment. However, agricultural malpractices like excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as climate change have aggravated the effects of biotic and abiotic stresses on crop productivity. These led to the degradation of ecosystem, leaving bad impacts on the soil qualities and water body environment. As an alternative to the rising agricultural energy, the use of Vesicular– Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (AM) may be a better option. Being natural root symbionts, AM provide essential inorganic nutrients to host plants, thereby improving its growth and yield even under stressed conditions. AM fungi can also potentially strengthen the adaptability of a plant to the changing environment, as a bio-fertilizer. The chapter provides a comprehensive up-to-date knowledge on AM fungi as a tool for sustainable agricultural system. Thus, further research focusing on the AM -mediated promotion of crop quality and productivity is needed.

**Keywords:** vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhizae, sustainable, symbionts, productivity

### **1. Introduction**

A potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing population within the changing environmental conditions is a sustainable agriculture, that is based on an understanding of the society's present food and textile needs, as well as on the ecosystem services. A special attention must be needed towards the study of the ability of symbiotic relationship among the actinorhizal plants and microbes, so as to overcome the problems of deforestation and the increasing cost of nitrogenous fertilizers [1].

For increasing the sustainability of agriculture, among various other methods, the better option is the use of natural root symbiont, Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (AM). As compared to conventional agriculture, the soil conditions are likely to be more favorable to AM fungi in a sustainable agriculture [2–4].

The AM fungi have been found to be associated with more than 80% of land plants, liverworts, ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms and grasses, and are widely distributed in natural and agricultural environments. Hence, for crop and biomass production, these symbiotic associations are very important, and they are receiving considerable attention in forestry and agriculture. Therefore, AM fungi are commonly known as bio-fertilizers. Moreover, these natural root symbionts help their host plants to grow vigorously under stressful conditions like drought, salinity, metals, and extreme temperatures. The mechanism behind is a series of complex communication events between the plant and the fungus that lead to increased photosynthetic rate and increased water uptake [5–7]. The AM fungi also assists in the regulation of metabolic pathways in plants.
