Plant protection using synthetic pesticides has become one of the essential components of modern agriculture. Although need based judicious application of pesticides have made a significant impact on increasing crop productivity in agricultural sector by combating heavy losses due to pest infestation but there are lots of serious associated bottlenecks with pesticides. The major issues related to pesticide application are environmental pollution, health hazards, pest resurgence, secondary pest outbreak etc., as a very less per cent of the applied pesticides reaches to the target organisms and rest remains as residues. Moreover, most of these pesticides becomes persistent pollutant of the environment because of their relative stable nature and many a times, the extreme toxicity results in pesticidal poisoning in living beings which is considered as a matter of great concern. Considering the ill effects of pesticides, many physical and chemical efforts have been attempted to lower down the possible effects of pesticide residues mostly in agricultural field however, those approaches are highly expensive and not eco-friendly. Of late, the bioremediation approach mostly by exploring pesticide degrading microorganisms has emerged as an eco-friendly, effective and economical alternative to address the concerned issues. | Microbial bioremediation of pesticide residues A review
