ABSTRACT
Postharvest diseases of vegetables may be incited by pre- or postinfection by number of pathogens and cause greater losses. Postharvest diseases are mainly incited by bacteria and fungi, which developed on vegetables between harvesting and consumption. During the last two decades, huge information and advances concerning the selection of antagonist, mode of action, different approaches to enhance biocontrol activity, formulation, and production have been achieved. A few biofungicides are available in the market that are commercially utilized by growers. Other promising biological control measures that include the resistance are available, which can be used in combination with biotic antagonists to enhance a greater stability and effectiveness than the approach of utilizing single microbial biocontrol agents. Microbial antagonists are applied either pre- or postharvest, but postharvest applications are more effective than pre harvest applications. Mixed cultures of the microbial antagonists appear to provide better control of postharvest diseases over individual cultures or strains. Similarly, the effectiveness of the microbial antagonist(s) can be enhanced if they are used with low doses of fungicides, salt additives, radioactive, and physical treatments like hot water dips, irradiation with ultraviolet light, and so on. At the international level, different microbial antagonists like Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenberg) Cohn 458and Trichoderma harzianum Rifai, Saccharomyces cerevisiae are being used. Biocontrol products like Aspire, BioSave, Shemer, and so on have also been developed and registered.
