10. Pesticides Bioremediation

In the developing countries, the usage of pesticides in the production of crops, fruits, and vegetables increases the economic status which establishes the major success in this field. Although the pesticide is an important aspect of the agricultural practices, the vast handling of harmful pesticides is an ultimate concern to the air, water, soil, and public health. Due to high impacts on human health, their application has been limited and different scenarios are developed to clean up the stubborn pesticides at different contaminated sites. Biological techniques like bioaugmentation, biostimulation, biosurfactants, bioremediation contaminated sites are available for degrading the pesticides, but the last one was found to be a most preferred method to mitigate the hazardous pesticides. Bioremediation method uses biological agent like microorganisms to degrade the contaminants in the existence of sufficient nutrients and environmental conditions. Properties of polluted sites, temperature, pH, nature of the pollutants are important factors which play a major role in the bioremediation process. The intent of this chapter is to bring out the bioremediation technologies accessible for clearing of pesticides at contaminated sites; additionally, their fundamentals, advantages, limitations and the pesticides treated are also summarized.