Ecofriendly Biotechnology and Agricultural Promotion of Trichoderma

Plant diseases have been concerned with mankind since agriculture began and played a crucial role in the destruction of natural resources and contributing 13 to 20 per cent losses in crop production worldwide (Anonymous., 1993). In particular, soil-borne pathogens cause important losses, fungi being the most aggressive. The distribution of several phytopathogenic fungi, such as Pythium, Phytophthora, Botrytis, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium have widely spreaded during the last few years due to change the introduced in farming with detrimental effects on crops of economic importance. In addition, not only growing crops but also stored fruits prey to fungalinfection (Chet et al., 1997). Moreover, an integrated approach promotes a degree of disease suppression similar to that achieved with full fungicidal treatment. For about 70 years, Trichoderma spp. have been known to attack other fungi, to produce antibiotics that affect other microbes and to act as biocontrol microbes (Weindling, 1934). Antagonists of phytopathogenic fungi have been used to control plant diseases and 90 per cent of such applications have been carried out with different strains of Trichoderma (Monte, 2001). The success of Trichoderma as biocontrol agents (BCAs) is due to their high reproductive capacity, ability to survive under very unfavorable conditions, efficiency in the utilization of nutrients, capacity to modify the rhizosphere, strong aggressiveness against phytopathogenic fungi and efficiency in promoting plant growth and defense mechanisms. These properties have made Trichoderma a ubiquitous genus present in any habitat and at high population density (Misra and Prasad, 2003).