Microbial consortia and drought tolerance- A paradigm shift towards agro-ecological sustainability

Drought stress is one of the major environmental constraints affecting plant growth, development, and economic yield, particularly in vulnerable regions. Conventional plant responses to water scarcity often involve trade-offs that limit yield, posing an urgent need for sustainable strategies to enhance crop resilience. Moreover, decreased crop production, rising inflation, abrupt disease cycling, frequent insect and pest pressures, and other socio-economic issues cumulatively affected global food production and are a concern for nutritional security for expanding populations. Addressing these challenges demands urgent climate adaptation, improved water management, and policy innovation for future resilience. The present review explains the fundamentals of beneficial plant-microbe interactions in mitigating drought stress and utilizing these beneficial microbes, especially microbial consortia, as an integrated approach for gaining agro-ecological sustainability. It brings together current approaches on how plants recruit these stress-tolerant microbes purposefully through changed root exudates and rhizosphere chemistry, and how this changed environment favors the recruited players to work synergistically. Microbial consortia boost the plant performance even under the stressed environment through several key mechanisms, including the synthesis of osmoprotectants, the production of exopolysaccharides for improved water retention and biofilm formation, hormonal changes, antioxidative defense mechanisms, and improved nutrient mobilization under drought conditions. Field applications in several crops demonstrated better performances in growth, yield, and physiological health. However, consortia developed using multiple microbes that have plant growth-promoting properties are more effective than single microbes in alleviating the impacts of drought stress. The application of customized microbial consortia is a potent and environmentally friendly approach for mitigating drought-induced losses, reducing the use of chemicals, and striving toward climate-resilient agriculture. Advanced biotechnological interventions are required in order to address formulation and delivery challenges. Development of SynComs, use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to enhance microbes, and application of AI and multi-omics technologies for developing efficient and crop-specific microbial inoculants will be the future of efficient agricultural systems.