Beneficial Rhizobacterial Biomes: A Natural Drought Stress Alleviators for Sustainable Crop Production

Climate change will certainly intensify the prevalence of drought stress as a single most stressful environmental factor that put down the agri-industry, as it affects the water relations of a plant at the cellular and whole plant level, decreasing productivity and causing economic losses in agriculture. Furthermore, the frequency of drought occurrence increases every year eroding more and more agricultural land throughout the world, resulting in a 9–10% reduction in crop production which threatens world food security. Generally, drought stress can be addressed by breeding drought-resistant cultivars, adjusting crop calendars, strategic planning, conventional breeding and genetically engineered drought-resistant plants. However, the technical, economic and ecological limitations of these strategies have sparked interest in the exploration of alternative low-cost, natural and ecologically friendly approaches, i.e., the use of plant growth-promoting beneficial rhizobacterial biomes. Co-inoculation of plants with beneficial bacterial biomes that are adapted to moisture stress conditions may promote plant growth and protect the crops plants from the deleterious effects of extreme drought stress. In the present chapter, we attempt to overview the current knowledge on how plant–rhizobacteria interactions help in alleviating drought stress naturally and their usage for sustainable crop production.