Soil Reclamation and Conservation Using Biotechnology Techniques

Abstract

Pollution and unsustainable use of natural resources such as land and soil has resulted in their destruction. Restoration of degraded land and soil is essential for maintenance of essential ecosystem services such as preservation of biodiversity, nutrient/water cycling and meeting the food requirement for living beings. Bioremediation has appeared as technology with high potential for restoring damaged soil and degraded lands. Biotechnological techniques such as development of efficient microbial consortia with an enhanced capacity to remove various contaminants from soils and improvement in nutrient retention in soil have opened new prospects in bioremediation with an aim to recover productive capacity of soil. The techniques such as bioventing, bioaugumentation, biosparging have also proved useful in restoring degraded and non-productive soils to a great extent. The biotechnological techniques, thus can act as an ecofriendly method for remediation, restoration and reclamation of degraded/damaged soils.