Mitigating Drought Stress Effects in Arid and Semi-Arid Agro-Ecosystems through Bioirrigation Strategies—A Review

Abstract

Drought stress is most alarming and destructive among the abiotic stresses that increased in intensity in recent years affecting global food and nutritional security. The main resource limiting global agricultural productivity is water. The previous two decades have seen a surprising amount of study reports on genetically modifying plants to increase their ability to withstand drought, but actual progress has lagged behind expectations. Applying bioirrigation techniques in drought-prone areas might be a workable alternative strategy. It does apply to the usage of living things or biological creatures, such as potential microorganisms that can move soil moisture from a zone with enough water to plants that are drought-stressed through the modification of agricultural microclimate using agronomic strategies. Potential microorganisms include Gram+ and Gram− bacterial consortiums, as well as plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). In addition to PGPR, the utilization of soil macro-fauna in agriculture, such as earthworms, lugworms, termites, etc., can be utilized and explored in the near future towards bioirrigation. Earthworms and other macro-fauna are abundant in soil, digging deep burrows in the sediment and providing aeration to the plants. PGPR evolved with plant roots to enhance plant resilience under biotic and abiotic stresses. Benthic microorganisms, which include bacteria and microalgae, for instance, have a 70–80% higher water-holding capacity. Through research findings, these benthic microorganisms can be successfully identified and used in agriculture, and they may prove to be a cutting-edge method to increase plant-water-use efficiency. Similarly, plant roots of legume plants act as bioindicators under drought-stress conditions. These new developments make a significant contribution to addressing the problems of food security that come with changing climate. This review article offers information on bioirrigation techniques, their potential, estimating techniques, etc. Overall, this article goes into detail about how bioirrigation techniques aid crop plants in overcoming drought stress. Future research should focus on creating the most appropriate and effective microbes, dealing with the problem of delivery systems, and evaluating potential organisms in the field for microbial formulations to improve plant performance under drought stress and significantly lower yield losses in drought-affected areas.

A review of agroforestry as a sustainable and resilient agriculture

“…Additionally, these agroforests have a heightened ability to withstand and adapt to the anticipated impacts of climate change. According to Rajanna et al (2023), enhanced root systems and increased capacity for infiltration and water retention contribute to mitigating the effects of drought. Additionally, trees exhibit superior resilience to floods compared to field crops due to their capacity to extract surplus water from the soil and endure inundation.…”

Drought Stress Under a Nano-Farming Approach: A Review

“…Drought is an abiotic stress which severely aggravates other stresses like pathogen attack, salinity, and heat, which cause damage to cultivated plants and reduces agricultural productivity (Fadiji et al 2022). Drought also is one of the most common, intense, and frequent extreme weather events besides heatwaves and floods, with events that differ from region to region and from one year to another (Rajanna et al 2023). Severe drought events have increased globally in recent years.…”

“…It is important to investigate drought from different points of view to understand the mechanisms of stress and what can be done to minimize negative effects. This includes research into projections of future drought trends (Vicente-Serrano et al 2023), drought stress on crops (Fadiji et al 2022) and forests (Konings et al 2021), plant propagation under drought stress (Zhang et al 2022), application of bioirrigation to mitigate drought (Rajanna et al 2023), how drought impacts water quality (Qiu et al 2023), microbial resistance to drought (Allison 2023), and plant-soil feedback mechanisms under drought (de Vries et al 2023).…”

Overview of insights into the role of Bacillus species in drought stress alleviation and plant disease management

“…These phenomena are exacerbating drought problems, making vast expanses of once-fertile land less productive and even unsuitable for agriculture [8]. Drought is not just a lack of water for crops; it also reduces the availability of nutrients in the soil, affects beneficial micro fauna and can lead to an increase in soil salinity, further reducing the ability of plants to grow and develop [9,10]. Not only does drought reduce crop yields, it also directly affects the quality of agricultural produce, impacting the food chain at several levels [11,12].…”