Abstract

Forest diseases can cause great damage worldwide especially in case of loss of vulnerable forest ecosystems. In addition to biotic factors, abiotic factors such as climate change also aggravates forest decline syndrome primarily caused by forest diseases. The increased dependence on synthetic chemicals has affected the ecosystem in much drastic way. The indiscriminate use of agrochemicals caused an adverse impact on environment, which takes place due to dumping nearly 2.5 million tons of pesticides every year. Use of beneficial microorganisms or biological control against forest-tree pathogens have not gained full momentum yet there is huge unexplored scope in this direction. The obstruction lies in their application strategy and the fact that biocontrol agent needs to establish prior commensalism interaction with trees in order to prevent pathogens from invading trees. Because of having diverse mode of action of biocontrol agents like disease suppression ability, growth enhance ability and activation of defense mechanism of host plant, pathogen/s get less chance to develop resistance against a particular biocontrol agents. There are different successful example of management of plant diseases by biocontrol agents preferably with the indigenous strains, some of which are cited in this article. As registration process of effective biocontrol agents does not involve strict regulations in the country like India. This article reflects the available information related to important diseases of forest nurseries with some successful example for its management with biocontrol agents, their mode of action, formulation and registration procedure. This article will enable researchers to explore ecofriendly management practices against different diseases of forest nurseries in a better way which are constantly challenged in the natural conditions.