International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719

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International Journal of Food Microbiology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfoodmicro

Recent advances on organic biofertilizer production from anaerobic

fermentation of food waste: Overview
Mohammed Y. Areeshi
Medical Laboratory Technology Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia
Research and Scientific Studies Unit, College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Massive utilizations of chemical fertilizer in agriculture sector to improve the farming productivity have created
Food wastes increasing possibility of environmental damages. Severe human health issues, global warming, poor fertility and
Bio-fertilizer high cost of soil maintenance are the major side effects of the utilizations of inorganic fertilizers and needs
Fermentation
immediate attention. To overcome these issues, agriculture farming has been shifted towards the development of
Anaerobic microbial digestion
Value addition
organic fertilizers using natural bio-resources. Organic fertilizers have several advantages like low-cost, being
produced from the renewable resources and are highly efficient to improve the productivity of soil and agri­
culture product, rapidly. Additionally, bio-fertilizers not only increase the production, nutrients and organic
matter but also neutralize the harmful impacts caused by the chemical fertilizers due to the potential combi­
nation of the microorganisms with organic wastes. Food wastes have tremendous potential to enhance the
production of bio-fertilizers because these wastes are present in bio-degradable forms and may efficiently
accelerate the activity of the microbial metabolic. Thus, the present review summarizes an overview of the
production strategy of bio-fertilizers using the combination of food wastes and microorganisms. Further, in depth
discussion have been done about the microbial digestion of food wastes to produce biofertilizer along with
discussions about the possible mechanisms involved therein. Plant growth promoting microorganisms and their
mechanisms have been also analyzed in the present review along with the existing limitations and sustainable
future prospective.

1. Introduction
Worldwide growth in human population have resulted tremendous
increase in food demand and its supply, consequently huge amount of
food wastes are generated (Muralikrishna and Manickam, 2017). The
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food wastes as “Total
occurred qualitative & quantitative food losses during the process of the
supply chain, which happens at the different stages like production,
post-harvesting, and processing” (FAO). Additionally, huge production
of food wastes affects the significant loss of other necessary resources
such as water, land, and energy. Further, it was predicted by the FAO
that globally 1.3 billion tonnes of food wastes are produced on the
annual basis and this is counted as one-third of the total food being
produced worldwide (Satlewal et al., 2018). Moreover, it is estimated
that the relative economic and population growth will enhance the
generation of food wastes in coming 25 years specially predicted for the
Asian countries (Du et al., 2018). In addition, urban food wastes will be
approaching to nearly 138 million tonnes by 2025 when compared to
2005 (Pandey et al., 2016). Further, when global market is analyzed, it is
noticed that the Asia is the major contributor of food wastes by gener­
ating 278 million tonnes of food wastes and listed at the top position
(Hamid et al., 2020). The reason behind such a huge production of food
wastes is the dependency of Human’s primary livelihoods on foods
which are preferably produced from the agriculture sector (Ahmad
et al., 2019). Additionally, if these food wastes are just dumped in to the
land fill are regarded as the municipal solid wastes (MSWs). These MSWs
have their own disadvantages & advantages both, for example, if these
are discarded as such they cause environmental pollution by releasing
toxic gases and create ground water contamination by attracting flies
over it (Shamsuddin et al., 2020). On the other hand, if these MSWs are
properly managed, these can be transformed into the compost and an­
imal feeds as the value added products. Production of compost using
food wastes has huge advantages in resolving numerous issues related to
the environment as well as agriculture sector (Ariana and Candra,
2017). Being highly rich in organic and nutrient components, compost
developed from the food wastes have number of advantages, like it will

E-mail address: marishi@jazanu.edu.sa.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2022.109719
Received 12 March 2022; Received in revised form 28 April 2022; Accepted 8 May 2022
Available online 13 May 2022
0168-1605/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M.Y. Areeshi
be natural or organic in nature, easy to be processed, eco & biocom­
patible and grabs high amounts of nutrients (Begum et al., 2019).
Moreover, composts transformed from these wastes are highly efficient
to rejuvenate the fertility of soil, and hence are capable to improve the
productivity of agricultural farming. Further, this organic compost also
contains a number of fermentative microbial colonies which may
transform food wastes into the compost through the fermentation pro­
cess. Transformation of composting via natural process is one of the
major advantages, meanwhile being natural in nature; the crops devel­
oped by using such compost are healthy and safe for human consump­
tion (Mahmud and Chong, 2021).
Though, a numbers of commercial compost or bio-fertilizers are
available in the market, however it is difficult to achieve fast and steady
degradation rate, and this is mainly due to the substrate variations
physicochemical and environmental conditions changes (Duan et al.,
2019). Moreover, mass scale production and consumption of chemical
fertilizers have resulted in poor soil quality and may cause serious
environmental pollution issues (Gunjal, 2019). On the other hand, uti­
lizations of food wastes to produce bio-fertilizers may accelerate the
population of thermotolreant and thermophilic microbiomes, and this
can help to achieve highest growth of plants via improving the fertility
of the soil (Lu et al., 2018). In addition, development of bio-fertilizer
may also provide socioeconomic and ecological advantages for all,
including environment, animal and human health. Based on the digested
raw materials used therein, bio-fertilizers are also produced in many
types at low-cost (Mahami et al., 2019) [Fig. 1].
Anaerobic digestion based bio-fertilizers contains huge microbial
combination along with different nutrient compositions which is
important for the soil fertility. Bacterial and fungal species such as
Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Samonella, Penicillum, Shigella, Bacillus,
Bacteriodes and Aspergillus are found and have been explored in the
production of bio-fertilizers (Owamah et al., 2014). For example,
Klebsiella and Clostridium spp. are the free living bacterial community
responsible for the nitrogen fixation, whereas Bacillus and Pseudomonas
spp. are known as the phosphate solubilizers (Mojumdar and Deka,
2019). Anaerobic digestion process of bio-fertilizers may improve the
transformation of wastes into value addition in form of bio-fertilizers.
Being renewable, utilization of waste materials therein, low-cost and
Fig. 1. Graphic illustration of how agricultural wastes and their constituents, including biopolymers, can be used as biostimulants and biofertilizers. [Adopted from
(Puglia et al., 2021) open access (CCBY)].
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International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719
fast production; bio-fertilizers carries potential opportunity and offer
great promise to improve the global food security via increasing the
agricultural yield, specifically in the countries like Africa and Asia,
which cover together ~50% and 74% of the total land mass as well as
population worldwide, respectively (Dantroliya et al., 2022). Therefore,
the objective of the present review is to explore the opportunity and
potentials of food wastes mediated organic bio-fertilizer production and
its applications in the agriculture sector for the eco-friendly farming for
sustainable future.
2. Bio-fertilizer: significance and role
Bio-fertilizers is the combination of living microorganisms and
organic resources wherein organic resources functions as the growth
supports for the microorganisms and hence called to be living fertilizers
(Singh et al., 2019). The organic and natural resources fulfill nutrients
requirements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the organic
resources which is supplemented to the fertilizer during the formation
process (Soumare et al., 2020). These essential nutrients are present in
the environmental surroundings, and due to the microbial activities they
are transformed into the soil. These bio-fertilizers enhance the soil
quality by improving its fertility, biodiversity and nutrient availability
(Md. Tahir et al., 2019). Bio-fertilizers are not the direct source of nu­
trients but it contains different combinations of microbes which support
the crops to develop or access the required nutrition from the environ­
ment. The diversity of microorganisms include free living microbes,
cyanobacteria and bacterial endophytes, having capability of coloniza­
tion in some section of the plant and develops some kinds of symbiotic
relationship with the host plant (Truckell et al., 2019). These all plant
growth promoting bacteria performs the same mechanisms during the
promotion of the bacterial growth (dos Santos et al., 2020). As per the
working mechanisms of microbes, these are divided into different cat­
egories, which include direct and indirect mechanisms. In case of direct
route, they directly promote the plants growth by performing some
modifications in the hormone levels or by fulfilling the nutrient re­
quirements. On the other hand, in case of indirect mechanism, it reduces
inhibitory effects of different harmful microorganisms (Agrawal, 2015).
These bio-fertilizers include several microbes such as phosphate
M.Y. Areeshi
solubilizing bacteria (Pseudomonas sp.), bacteria responsible for the
nitrogen fixation (Azotobacter, Rhizobium), fungi and nitrogen fixing
cynobacteria (Anabaena). Some special types of strains such as cellulo­
lytic microbes and bacteria which produce phytohormone (auxin) are
also found in bio-fertilizers (Ritika and Utpal, 2014) [Fig. 2]. Such
proper and balanced combinations of the microbes perform the task of
enhancing the nutrition supply for plants which can be easily be
accessed. Bio-fertilizers are renewable and cheap source of nutrition for
plants. Ibiene et al., performed a test to observe the function of plant
growth promoting bacteria on the tomato plant (Ibiene et al., 2012).
These bio-fertilizer contained species like Nitrobactor, Azotobactor as
well as Nitrosomonas which was applied to the plant and the observation
was recorded. After five days of the application reading were as follow:
root length = 10.0 cm, steam width = 1.0 cm, plant height = 15.8 cm
and internodes length = 3.8 cm whereas, in case of the normal plant:
root length = 6.1 cm, steam width = 0.5 cm, internodes length = 2.5 cm
and plant height = 11.0 cm were noticed (Ibiene et al., 2012). Reddy
et al., setup an experiment to observe the development in tomato plant
by using plant growth promoting Rhizo bacteria (Reddy et al., 2018). In
these samples two species of Azospirillum and Azotobactor were used
and the observations were recorded after 60, 45 and 30 days. The
maximum growth of plant height 51 cm, leaf area 59 cm square,
germination 90% and branches per plant 8.66 were observed in the
samples (Reddy et al., 2018). Similarly, Alhia performed the experiment
using the greenhouse condition in which Azotobactor Chrococcum was
used for the nitrogen fixation on the cucumber plant (Alhia, 2010). In
this experiment seven different treatments were given to 210 seeds to
cucumber plant and the observation was recorded after the three month.
It was noticed that the production was increased by 6.0% in the seeds
which was inoculated by A. chroococcum as compared to the other
samples. The inoculated plant also shows increment in weight of wet
root by 18%, weight of dry roots by 31%, weight of wet plant as a whole
by 13%, number of leafs and branches by 27% and the weight of dry
plant as a whole by 11% (Alhia, 2010). Flores-Félix et al., isolated the
Rhizobium leguminosarum strain using Phaseolus vulgaris nodules and
observed its effect on the plant growth (Flores-Félix et al., 2013). This
strain produces indole acetic acid and siderophores as well as it solu­
bilizes phosphate content. Strain colonizes the root into two different
horticultural crops, Daucus carota L. and Lactuca sativa L. This Rhizobium
leguminosarum strain promotes growth of both types of species of plants
by increasing the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorous (Flores-Félix
et al., 2013). Apart from the microbes, it also contains biodegradable
wastes which acts as a carrier for such microorganisms. These carriers
can be lignite powder, bagasse, rice bran, peat, clay, wheat straw
compost, press mud, wheat bran, phosphate pellets or the combination
of such samples which can provide longer life-time to active microbes
which can facilitates crops by direct induction (Chaudhary et al., 2020).
Fig. 2. A simple diagram of the main technologies used for the conversion of organic waste into biofertilizer. [Adopted with permission from (Du et al., 2020)].
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International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719
3. Food waste for bio-fertilizers production
Production of bio-fertilizers from food wastes via anaerobic digestion
(AD) method is the most common and frequently applied process (Chen
et al., 2012). In various uses of industrial production & application, bio-
fertilizer is a common byproduct. Panuccio et al., and Tampio et al., used
food wastes via AD treatment and the bio-fertilizer generated consisted
of high level of nitrogen in both the studies (Panuccio et al., 2016;
Tampio et al., 2016). Further in the study of Rigby and Smith, bio-
fertilizers developed from the organic wastes have been tested, and
these authors found the highest nitrogen content ~11.3% in case of bio-
fertilizer generated from the food wastes (Rigby and Smith, 2013).
Additionally, content of phosphorus and potassium are also found to be
high in food wastes based bio-fertilizers. It has been concluded that
nutrient contents of the bio-fertilizer produced is mainly depends on the
type of food wastes used for the production of bio-fertilizer (Rossi et al.,
2016). Additionally, co-digestion of these food wastes with the combi­
nation of other sources may support the adjustment of C/N ratio which is
necessary for the smooth running of the AD system. However, quality
control maintenance of the food wastes during bio-fertilizer production
is mandatory to handle, and can be categorized into three category
namely physical, chemical and biological impurities which can be
rectify by using different pretreatment methods. Additionally, pre­
treatment is also essential to remove the heavy metals like impurities
during the production of bio-fertilizers (Mao et al., 2015). In a study
reported by Abdullah et al., authors found presence of heavy metals and
their high concentration beyond the permissible limit for bio-fertilizers,
which if not treated may enter into the food chain and thus may create
harmful impact on living organism (Abdullah and Greetham, 2016).
Further, like AD system, frequently food wastes are combined with
the farm wastes for the production of bio-fertilizer. These farm wastes
commonly include cellulosic and lignocellulosic wastes and fulfill
nutrient requirements along with facilitating C/N ratio adjustment (Ma
et al., 2017). During the process of co-composting utilizations of food
wastes with the combination of farm wastes, moisture adjustment is the
key factor to be optimized to avoid any contamination during the pro­
duction of bio-fertilizer. In the study of Tsai et al., bio-fertilizer was
produced via co-composting of food and farm wastes (Tsai et al., 2007).
Along with AD and co-composting of farm wastes, solid state fermen­
tation technology is also opted for the production of bio-fertilizers using
different food wastes. Along with composting, utilizations of different
biomass will also work as carriers to support the production of bio-
fertilizers (Uçkun Kiran et al., 2014). In support to bio-fertilizer pro­
duction, different types of biodegradable wastes can be used as a carrier
for soil inoculants and for being a good carrier of these inoculants the
size of biomass should not exceed to the value of 40 μm (Phua Choo Kwai
et al., 2009). The biomass can be a good carrier having properties like
M.Y. Areeshi
high absorbing capacity of moisture, nontoxic nature towards the mi­
croorganisms, and can be easily autoclaved or sterilized, easy to process
and low-cost advantage (Senoo et al., 2002). Zhang et al., used maize
bran residue for carrying two different phosphate solubilizing Bacillus
subtilis strains (Zhang et al., 2019). In these experiment highest soluble
phosphorous was found to be 642.7 ± 0.43 mg/L. The optimum climatic
conditions for these experiments were temperature 31 ◦ C, pH 7.0 and
the content of water was 160% with filing capacity of 500 g/L. This bio-
fertilizer showed improvement in the growth of wheat and Chinese
cabbage which was analyzed on the basis of the height (approx 18.36%)
as well as roots (approx. 34.03% and 27.22% individually) (Zhang et al.,
2019). Nurfalah et al., prepared three different combinations of carriers
using compost and rice bran for carrying most common fungal species
Trichoderma (Nurfalah et al., 2019). The ratio of rice bran and the
compost were 3:1, 2:2 and 1:3 and mixed with microbes. The entire
sample was observed during 30, 15 and 7 days after the preparation of
the mixture and it was found that the combination of carrier with 1:3
ratios was the optimum for producing tomatoes (Nurfalah et al., 2019).
If the carrier have all the necessary requirements and take the re­
sponsibility of the carried microorganisms then it will act as a desirable
and demandable substrate for bio-fertilizer production.
4. Mechanism of bio-fertilizer
4.1. Plant growth promotion by bio-fertilizers using direct mechanisms
This mechanism of the plant growth promotion includes supply of
useful nutrients and hormones to the crops for increasing the produc­
tivity and the growth in the crops. It includes a number of activities like
production of auxin, nitrogen fixation, solubilization of the both po­
tassium and phosphate, providing support in the development of plants
nodule as well as production of phytohormone (Vejan et al., 2016).
Production of auxin is one of the most likely and predominantly used
techniques generally used for explaining the beneficial effect of plant
growth by producing more bacterial growth for the developments of
crops. Auxin is generally released as a secondary metabolite when about
80% of rhizoshpere is synthesized. Maximum auxin are developed using
amino acids tryptophan found in the roots of the crops and depending
upon the plants genotype its concentration also varies (Leaungvutiviroj
et al., 2010). Auxins are generally synthesized by minimum three
different biosynthetic ways. These pathways are as follows: the indole
acetamide route, indole pyriuvic acid route and indole acetoitrile/ace­
taldoxime route (Hakim et al., 2018). It was found that different plant
growth promoting bacteria have followed one, two or even three of these
biosynthetic pathways for the synthesis of auxin. Plants show sensi­
tiveness at different stages towards different auxin levels (Zhao, 2010).
As per the behavior, the optimum amount of auxin which acts effectively
in promoting the growth in the crops it is near about the value having
five orders higher for shoot as compared to roots. Moreover, the effect on
the inhibition or stimulation of plant growth is defined by the amount of
auxin developed in the plant. The concentration of plants auxin is either
optimal or suboptimal; therefore the hormonal level can be changed to
supra-optimal or optimal with the addition of bacterial auxin (Besseau
et al., 2007). Ahmed and Hasnain, isolated two strain plant growth
promoting bacteria which produces auxin and identified as Bacillus
species (Ahmed and Hasnain, 2010). The optimum climatic condition
for the maximum production was found to be 37 ◦ C after 48 h of incu­
bation. It was also observed that this auxin producing strain showed
similar retention time as indole-3-acetic acid. This strain was further
inoculated with solanum tuberosum sprouts and the observations were
recorded on the basis of the growth and development. The increment in
shoot was observed which is about 35% to 40% and number as well as
length of the roots also were found to be increased. In a study, Baghaee
Ravari and Heidarzadeh performed an experiment on the plant growth
promoting bacteria and isolated thirty five different strains in which six
strains were reported for the potential auxin production along with
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International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719
phosphate solubilization and siderophore (Baghaee Ravari and Hei­
darzadeh, 2014).
Further, normal plant growth and stress tolerance are also affected
by the availability of ethylene hormone (Olanrewaju et al., 2017).
Different factors like gravity, temperature, nutrition, light, various
stages of abiotic/biotic stress and plant hormones significantly affect the
synthesis of ethylene in a particular plant. Various stresses such as excess
of light and water, availability of metals, high temperature, chemicals,
ultra-violet lights, bacterial and fungal pathogens, cuts, nematode
damage and insects may cause enhancement of ethylene in plants (Glick,
2005, 2014). Additionally, production of ethylene more than the opti­
mum value is might be due to the action of aminocyclopropane-1-
carboxylate (ACC) oxidase enzymes in the tissues of the targeted
plants and may affect the development of both shoot and root by
reducing its health. This critical situation can be alleviate and restore
with the proper improvements and growth in the crops by colonizing
ethylene stress of plant rhizosphere with the help of ACC deaminase
which produces plant growth promoting (PGP) bacteria (Singh et al.,
2015). The major application of ACC deaminase which contains PGP
bacteria generally reduces the concentration of ethylene produced by
the various stresses which results the decrement in the damage caused
by the different fungal and bacterial pathogen (Nadeem et al., 2010).
This ACC deaminase converts the ACC available across the root into
ammonia and α-ketobutyrate, along with these it also checks the pro­
duction of ethylene which creates problem for the plant growth pro­
moting bacteria. The plants which is subjected by the ACC deaminase
shows better growth due the less ethylene and also shows good resis­
tance towards the various stresses (Karthikeyan et al., 2012). The plant
growth promoting bacteria which contain ACC deaminase attracts the
attention of researchers. These bacteria promote the plant growth in any
condition whether it is under the stress or not, along with this different
genetic manipulation of cultivars with genes are the main reason of the
scientific attention (Saleem et al., 2007).
However, this technique is found to be highly effective on different
types of pathogens and results are limited at batch scale investigation in
greenhouse condition. Madhaiyan et al., observed the activity of
methylo-bacterium which increases the concentration of indo-3-acetic
acid that further increases the ACC activity (Madhaiyan et al., 2007).
In this experiment, concentration of ACC was measured in the root of
canola which was the targeted plants and different growth regulators
and action of methylo-bacterium was investigated. It was also observed
that the inoculation of this strain with different growth inhibitory con­
centration of many growth regulators may harm the targeted crops.
Further, nitrogen is one of the most required nutrients for the
effective fertility of the soil, increasing crops productivity and proper
growth of plants. Since, plants cannot use directly available nitrogen
from the atmosphere, hence converted into ammonia via biological ni­
trogen fixation process by means of nitrogenase activity of the micro­
organisms (Fatima et al., 2019; Leghari et al., 2016). Rhizobia is known
as a potential nitrogen fixer while in case of free living bacteria, utili­
zation frequency for nitrogen production is low because they fix less
amount of nitrogen. Ravikumar et al., collected 44 different samples
from the mangrove habitat of southeast coast of India wherein Azo­
bacter species were found to be emerging as the dominating bacterial
community for nitrogen fixation (Ravikumar et al., 2004). Additionally,
due to the considerable N2 fixation, noticeable changes in the plant
growth was also observed such as length of the roots got increased by
48.45%, shoot biomass by 29.49%, root biomass by 98.2% and the area
of leaf by 277.86% (Ravikumar et al., 2004). Tilak et al., performed the
glasshouse experiment on pigeonpea by applying the combination of
plant growth promoting bacteria like Rhizobium sp. Azotobactor chroo­
coccum and Pseudomonas fluorescens (Tilak et al., 2006). Based on
different microbial species selected therein, growth, length and weight
of plants were found to be completely different (Tilak et al., 2006).
Microorganisms by which phosphorus are solubilized are described
as phosphate solubilizing microorganisms. These microorganisms are
M.Y. Areeshi International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719

not deleterious to the environment as well as provide phosphate to the (Dimkpa et al., 2008). The production of three different kinds of
plants in more simple and acceptable forms. They are capable of con­ hydroxamate siderophores were observed with the help of electro-spray
verting both organic as well as inorganic types of insoluble phosphate to ionization mass spectrometry. The experiment was performed in pres­
the simple compounds which will be relatively be easier for the plants to ence and absence of siderophores on the cowpea and increment in the
utilize (Walia et al., 2017). The activities of phosphate solubilizers can height and biomass were observed in the targeted plant despite of the
be affected by many factors such as environment, soil and plants con­ iron and nickel stress. This nickel resistive streptomyces acidiscabies
ditions, fungal and bacterial strains. Application of minerals dissolving E13 plays a dual role by providing iron to the targeted plant as well as
substance such as ions of hydroxyl groups, organic acids, CO2 and pro­ offers protection against the toxicity of nickel (Dimkpa et al., 2008).
tons are the main mechanism of solubilizing inorganic phosphate Radziki et al., performed the investigation of siderophores produced by
(Jakobsen et al., 2005). Production of phosphates takes place when the bacterial strain and tested on tomato plant, and this increases the
liberation of organic acids along with their hydroxyl ions chelate cations chlorophyll content, plant production and content of iron (Radzki et al.,
and carboxyl ions or reduction in pH occurs. Whereas, about 30% to 2013). Siderophers produced from the chryseo bacterium c138 strain
50% of organic phosphorus is available in the form of inositol hex­ could function as an effective source of iron supply to iron starved to­
aphosphate, commonly known as Phytate (Bashan et al., 2013). mato plants (Radzki et al., 2013) [Fig. 3].
The breaking down of this phytate is possible because of the phytase
enzyme but it is produced in very small quantity by the roots of the
4.2. Indirect mechanism of promoting plant growth using organic fertilizer
plants. However, many plant growth promoting bacteria are capable of
solubilizing phytate. Park et al., isolated Pseudomonas flurorescens
The nature of plant growth promoter (PGP) bacteria is to support the
RAF15 from ginseng rhizosphere to study the mechanism of phosphate
developments in the crops by replacing the use of insecticides as a bio-
solubilization using two different mechanism; organic acid production
control agent (Lehman et al., 2011; Radzki et al., 2013; Svircev et al.,
and extraction of proton by ammonium assimilation (Park et al., 2009).
2011). The production of plants was reduced by 10% every year in
Nevertheless, these authors did not find any difference in phosphate
countries like USA, UK, Brazil whereas, in the countries like India,
solubilization and pH change (Park et al., 2009). In one of the studies,
China, Japan it rises up to 20% per year just because of the different
Ouyabe et al., observed the response of non-native plant growth pro­
plant diseases (Chakraborty and Newton, 2011). In order to reduce the
moting bacteria on rice plant under the greenhouse conditions and
massive application of inorganic fertilizers and insecticides many eco-
recorded enhancement in the nitrogen and phosphorous solubilization
friendly, PGP bacteria are still at the development stage whereas some
after fourteen days (Ouyabe et al., 2020).
of them are already available at the commercial level.
Next, siderophores are the iron chelators and perform the role of iron
A plant growth promotion bacterium produces one or more than one
carrier and shows high affinity towards the specific ligands. They belong
antibiotics in order to neutralize the harmful effects of phytopathogens.
to the group of peptide molecules of small in size having functional
The antibiotic which was selected for the neutralization of the specific
group along with a side chains. Microorganism which produces side­
pathogen shows positive response against some of the other pathogen,
rophore reduces the proliferation of pathogens by minimizing the
and there is a variation in the action of these antibiotics developed using
quantity of iron available to the pathogens (Crumbliss and Harrington,
the plant growth promotion bacterium at different field conditions
2009). Plant growths promoting bacteria which produce siderophores
(Molina et al., 2003). The performance as well as the action can be
minimizes the proliferation of phyto-pathogens by librating side­
changed by these bio-control microorganisms by performing variation in
rophores and are having very high affinity towards the iron element. It
the methodology of formulation and cultivation of the bio-control PGP
holdup most of the ferric ions which are available inside the rhizosphere
bacteria in the laboratory (Vurukonda et al., 2018). Many antibiotics are
of the host crops and protects the host plant from different bacterial and
developed from the microorganisms of the genera Pseudomonas and
fungal pathogen, whereas the bio-control plant growth promoting bac­
Bacillus. A lots of metabolites are produced which act as antibacterial,
teria are bound from utilizing enough iron for their growth (Garénaux
antifungal, antiviral, antihelmintic, antioxidant, phytotoxic, antimicro­
et al., 2011). Thus, lack of the iron content causes the loosing ability to
bial, antitumor and cytotoix agents (Stan et al., 2021). Bacillus is pro­
perform the task of anti-pathogen activity because they are unable to
duced from the strains such as non-ribosomal peptide, ribosome and
proliferate. Dimkpa et al., reported production of hydroxamate side­
ployketide synthetases. Application of different plant pathogens in place
rophores with the help of nickel resistive streptomyces acidiscabies E13
of chemical pesticides such as Pseudomonas sp. and Bacillus sp. play an

Fig. 3. A schematic descriptive mechanism of various traits shown by Plant Growth-Promoting Microbes present in biofertilizers that acts as bioinoculants and
promote plant growth. [Adopted from (Mahmud and Chong, 2021) (CC BY-NC-ND license)].

5
M.Y. Areeshi
important role by producing antibiotics. Antibiotics produced by
different plant growth promoting bacteria are one of the most studied
bio-control technique employed from past few years. Pseudomonas
species generates different types of antifungal antibiotics such as pyr­
rolnitrin, cepaciamide A, and phenazines, antitumor antibiotics such as
cepafungins and FR901463. It also produces bacterial antibiotics, anti­
viral antibiotics, and Bacillus sp. also produces many antifungal and
antibacterial antibiotics. Some of these Bacillus produced species are
lipopetide antibiotics, bacillomycin, iturins and surfactins. These anti­
biotics are classified into two different categories on the basis of its
volatile nature. A Volatile antibiotic includes hydrogen cyanide, ke­
tones, alcohols’etc., whereas non volatile antibiotics include antibiotics
like aminopolyols, phenylpyrrole and lipopeptides etc.
Plants generally promote growth of many microorganisms which are
responsible for degrading the cell wall when they get infected by the
fungal phyto-pathogens. These microorganisms contain chitinase which
breakdown chitin, which is the cell wall of the lots of phyto-pathogens
and residue product of β-(1, 4)-N-acetyl glucosamine polymer (Oye­
leye and Normi, 2018). Up to some level, fungal cells can also acts as a
protease which degrade the proteins of the cell wall and lipase, and is
responsible for the degradation of lipids. Apart from the plant encoded
enzymes for the degradation of cell, few bio-control plant growth pro­
moting bacteria produces same types of enzymes which is responsible
for the cell wall degradation (Mondal et al., 2016). Plant growth pro­
motion bacterium strains when transferred genetically with the genes of
cell wall degrading microorganisms perform with higher efficiency.
Gruber and Seidl-Seiboth, described about the Glycoside hydrolase
family 18 which includes about all types of fungal chitinases that are
involved in the cell wall degradation (Gruber and Seidl-Seiboth, 2012).
The role of these cell wall degrading enzymes and chitinases apart from
the cell wall degradation is the recycling of the cell wall of its own
fungus and its remodeling too. On the basis of the amino acid sequences,
the chitinases from Glycoside hydrolase family 18 are classified in to
three different categories A, B and C. The subgroup A and C are exo-
chitinases which degrade terminals of the chitin chains and produces
oilgomers or dimmers of acetyl-glucosamine. Whereas, sub-group-B is
supposed to be endo-chitinases which degrades reducing and non-
reducing ends of chitin chain. Thereafter, the released dimer-
chitobiose is degraded into two different monomers of N-acetyl-gluco­
saminidases, NAG1 and NAG2. Wherein, NAG1 is released in to the
medium whereas the NAG2 is attached to the cell wall of Tricoderma
(Gruber and Seidl-Seiboth, 2012).
Some special type of bacterial phytopathogens gets degraded using
some specific types of bacteriophages and bacterial viruses. In order to
attend this technique, firstly proper identification of those particular
phyto-pathogens must be done, and after this isolation and character­
ization of that specific strain should be performed. Subsequently, the
characterization process, identification of such phytopathogen must be
done which can lyse the specific pathogen without harming other useful
microbes (Armon, 2020). These bacteriophages are sprayed over the
plant which is infected by the bacterial phytopathogen, and the mixture
is the combination of two or more sample of bacteriophage strains which
are specific for lyse of phytopathogens (Frampton et al., 2012). These
mixtures reduce the possibility of the development of resistive nature
towards the strains in the phytopathogens due to the presence of many
binding sites of various areas on the surfaces of pathogens.
5. Limitations and conclusions
Though bio-fertilizers have lots of advantage, a number of drawbacks
are also associated with these fertilizers in terms of certain limitations
such as, it requires extra care to survive for the long duration and must
be applied before the expiry date (Naveed et al., 2014). It is also possible
that inoculants can even harm the carrier and there is also a possibility of
unwanted inoculants to be grown which reduces the fertility of the soil
(Carvajal-Muñoz and Carmona García, 2012). Bio-fertilizers are useful
6
International Journal of Food Microbiology 374 (2022) 109719
for the plants but unable to fulfill the complete demand of the host plant
that’s why it cannot replace other fertilizers. Effectiveness and the
functional stability of bio-fertilizers are also affected with the changes in
the environmental parameters like pH, moisture, carrier type of the soil
and unavailability of the efficient strains that help to develop bio-
fertilizer (Ritika and Utpal, 2014).
The present review provides an overview of the production process
of organic fertilizers from the food wastes via microbial fermentation
and analyzed the recent advancement in this area. As per the contents
expressed in the review, the availability and value addition possibility of
the food wastes have been explored. Additionally, microbial mecha­
nisms of bio-fertilizers to promote plants growth have been explained in
detail through the direct and in-direct mechanisms. Direct mechanism of
working of bio-fertilizers promotes the plant growth by providing
various nutrients such as vitamins, protein and minerals etc. These bio-
fertilizers also induce plants development via enhancing growth of
hormones such as auxin production, nitrogen fixation, solubilization of
the both potassium and phosphate etc. On the other hand, indirect
mechanism supports to improve the immunity against the pathogens.
Moreover, these food wastes either alone or in some ratio with two or
more food wastes may enhance the biodegradability and acts as a carrier
support for the organic bio-fertilizers development. In addition, appli­
cation of these types of bio-fertilizers which can be developed from the
food wastes may greatly help to reduce the demand of insecticides and
pesticides, efficiently and can help to maintain the long term sustain­
ability of the environment.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Mohammed Yahya Areeshi: Conceptualization, Writing – review &
editing.
Declaration of competing interest
Author of the manuscript declare there is no conflict of interests.
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