Abstract

This review aims to elaborate the potential applications of various biological agents in decontamination of agricultural soils, which have been polluted with continuous and higher doses of pesticides through process of biodegradation. Biodegradation is an eco friendly, cost effective, highly efficient approach and can be considered as a superior alternative to physical and chemical methods which are not only technically laborious and costly; also are not sufficient to completely degrade organic toxins. Development of experimental conditions in which all congruent biological agents are applied concurrently may be a promising strategy to enhance biodegradation and subsequently biodegradation. Much work remains to be done in carrying out field studies based on laboratory-scale results/experiments using plant-associated endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria to degrade a wide range of toxic organic compounds of concern in environmental soil before commercially viable systems.

Key words: Biodegradation, pesticides, fungi, bacteria, phytodegradation.