Bioremediation Approaches for Reclamation of Pesticide Contaminated Agro-Ecosystem

1. Sadhna Awasthi
   Department of chemistry, School of Applied & Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
   *Corresponding Author: sadhnaawasthi02@gmail.com
2. Pradeep Bahuguna
   Department of chemistry, School of Applied & Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
3. Himani Badoni
   Department of Biotechnology, School of Applied & Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
4. Anurag Tewari
   Department of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology, Kanpur-UP, India
5. Vikrant Pachouri
   Department of Civil Engineering, Uttaranchal Institute of Technology, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India

Abstract

Pesticides are the synthetic chemical compounds used to eliminate pests. These synthetic chemicals are used to protect and maximize the yield and quality of crops. Broad scale applications of pesticides may be given credit to upgrade the monetary aids and better harvest to the farmers. However, the excessive use of chemicals and their persistence have generated serious threats to agroecosystem and human health. The entry of residual concentration of pesticides in the agro-ecosystem is crossing the limits stipulated by the regulatory authorities, is a matter of concern at this point of time. There is a challenge to eradicate these persistent organic pollutants (POPs) out of which many are the pesticides, from environment in order to restore the quality of agricultural soils. In the present chapter, the emphasis has been given on the bioremediation technique which is aptly considered as an ecofriendly approach for the degradation of pesticides in the soil. The intense applications of pesticides, fertilizers and other synthetic chemicals have aggravated numerous problems for agro-ecosystem therefore it seems mandatory to decontaminate the environment by implementing efficient decontamination approaches like bioremediation. The main goal of this approach is the recovery of soil health, fertility and improvement in its quality. The sustainable and suitable bioremediation approaches when applied for the removal of polluted systems have led to the successful results.

Keywords: Pesticides, Bio-remediation, Xenobiotics, Toxicants, Lethal concentration, Microbial Enzymes