ABSTRACT
Economically important agricultural, horticultural, and ornamental crop plants are attacked by various soilborne and foliar pathogenic fungi, resulting in billions of dollars in cumulative crop losses. Currently, the most widely used control measure for suppressing these diseases is the use of fungicides. However, problems encountered, such as development of resistance by pathogen to fungicides, inability of seed-treated fungicides to protect the roots of mature plants, rapid degradation of the chemicals, and a requirement for repeated applications, have given impetus to alternative disease-control measures. Other factors leading to increased interest in alternatives include the increasing cost of soil fumigation, lack of suitable replacements for methyl bromide, and public concerns over exposure to fungicides. Both the agriculture and agri-food sectors are now being expected to move toward environmentally sustainable development, while maintaining productivity. These concerns and expectations have led to renewed interest on the use of ‘‘biologically based pest-management strategies.’’ One approach to such biologically based strategies is the use of naturally occurring and environmentally safe biocontrol agents (BCAs) such as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and fungi, used alone or in conjunction with integrated pest-management (IPM) strategies.
