Biofertilization by Nitrogen-Fixing Cyanobacteria, Nutrient Supplementation, and Growth Promotion

The indiscriminate use of agrochemicals to control pests and fertilize crops has been used to satisfy the population’s demand, causing environmental pollution problems. The use of non-harmful and environmentally friendly fertilizers such as biofertilizers has been promoted. Biofertilizers consist of the preparation of living soil microorganisms that add, conserve, and mobilize nutrients to the rhizosphere or to the interior of plants, which encourage their growth; some of them also can fix nitrogen and produce growth-promoting (cytokinins, auxins, and gibberellins), in addition to maintaining the soil structure in arable fields. In this way, biofertilizers based on cyanobacteria are a vital element in developing sustainable agriculture that seeks to enhance the productivity of crops. For these photosynthetic microorganisms to be exploited on a large scale to improve culture technology and develop new economically feasible protocols for producing quality inoculums, it is necessary to implement strategies that allow controlling abiotic factors that limit their growth in photobioreactors. An example of biofertilization technology in wheat crops using a photosynthetic microbial consortium produced in a photobioreactor is presented.