ABSTRACT

Sustainable alternatives should be explored to reduce worldwide pesticide use. One such alternative is to use natural enemies for pest control, that is, biological control.

In this chapter, we describe biological control and its advantages over agrochemicals. The basic interactions that can take place between any two species, be it plant-microbe or microbe-microbe, and the mode of action of bacterial biocontrol agents (BCA) is described.

14.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 317 14.2 Biological control ................................................................................................................ 318 14.3 BCA versus agrochemicals ............................................................................................... 318 14.4 Interaction between host-pathogen and BCA ............................................................... 319 14.5 Mechanisms of biocontrol ................................................................................................ 320