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The green revolution in India introduced enhanced agricultural technologies, in particular, the use of chemical pesticides to increase production and yield (Bisen et al., 2015; Singh et al., 2017). However, over the years, the rampant and continuous use of pesticides and fertilizers has not only posed an imperative risk to human health and ecosystems but has also been catastrophic for soil microbiota (Bisen et al., 2015; Keswani et al., 2014; Mishra et al., 2015). Large-scale chemical inputs into the soil have made many areas unproductive, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana, which has become a matter of genuine concern (Planning Commission, Government of India, 2013; Singh et al., 2013b). Furthermore, xenobiotic pesticides are designed to have slow or very slow degradation rates due to their structure, which promotes their bioaccumulation and biomagnification across the food-web, causing loss of biodiversity and contamination of groundwater. The continuously growing human population (current annual growth rate is 1.6% (James and Goli, 2016)), together with a constant threat of abiotic stress and the loss of fertile soils (NAAS, 2013; 2017), especially from the Indian perspective, made the search for plausible eco-friendly alternatives extremely imperative, mainly to ensure food safety (Keswani, 2015).

The Indian economy is predominantly agro-based with about 70% of the population of the country being linked to agriculture in some ways. India is the leading producer of cereals, cash crops, and some horticultural crops, according to reports (www.fao.org; www.agricoop.nic.in). In the context of eco-friendly solutions, plant breeds that are tolerant or that have improved resistance to pathogens may be considered an alternative to xenobiotic or plant-extract derived pesticides. But these economically unsustainable techniques cannot be contemplated seriously due to their exorbitant costs to Indian farmers, and due to the length of time required for the development, licensing, and commercialization of these varieties. This opens the way for plausible cost-effective, eco-friendly and sustainable yield improvement alternatives, such as the use of agriculturally important microbes (AIM), including rhizobacteria, which have attracted the attention of agriculturalists for a long time. Extensive research on sustainable agriculture using AIM has been carried out globally for at least two decades (Ahmad et al., 2008; Ram et al., 2018; Singh et al., 2019a,b). Biopesticides, an AIM subclass (Table 1), are naturally occurring biologically safe microorganisms that can be used to control and regulate outbreaks of pests in agriculture (Singh et al., 2016). Considering the significant role of biopesticides and biofertilizers in promoting sustainable agriculture that mainly encompasses target-specificity, environmental security and biodegradability (Bisen et al., 2016; Keswani et al., 2013; Kumar and Singh, 2015), several government agencies such as the Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology actively promote research and improve the development and commercialization of such “ecological” input. Despite strong Government support in India, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries (USA, Canada, and Mexico) are the world’s major biopesticides consumer and uses approximately 45% of all globally sold biopesticides (Vílchez et al., 2017), the European Union uses 20%, Oceanic countries use 20%, South and Latin Americas use 10%, and Asia (including China and India) use only 5% of the world’s biopesticides (Bailey et al., 2010; Marrone, 2009).