Cyanobacterial biodiversity and their potential application in sustainable agriculture

Cyanobacteria are Gram-negative prokaryotic oxygenic photoautotrophs that evolved during the Precambrian epoch (4.5 billion years ago) and transformed the earth from an anoxic to an oxic environment. It exhibits both morphological and ecological diversity and has the ability to tolerate a wide variety of stress conditions. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. Some of the cyanobacteria have unique ability of nitrogen fixation and have been successfully used in rice-ecosystem as biofertilizers. With growing world population estimated to cross 9.1 billion by 2050, the pressure to find alternative sources of sustainable agriculture processes and practices becomes important. Cyanobacteria may prove highly promising for meeting the needs of increasing population through its applicability in the form of food, feed, pharmaceutical, and biotech industry. The chapter aims to understand how cyanobacterial diversity could be exploited for meeting the needs of sustainable agriculture.