European Journal of Sustainable Agroecosystems

Background: One of the key issues facing worldwide agriculture is increasing crop production and decreasing its dependency on synthetic agrochemicals while also sustaining soil and ecosystem health. The rhizosphere is understood as the narrow band of soil around the roots, which can be controlled in a way to increase the efficiency of nutrient uptake, stress resistance, and disease suppression without excessive consumption of foreign inputs. This gave rise to the concept of rhizosphere engineering including the use of microbes, changing root exudates, applying soil amendments, genetic modifications of the plant, and precision agriculture approaches.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific literature published between 2015 and 2025 on the issue of rhizosphere engineering in the context of sustainable agricultural intensification with the aim to determine the leading methods, evaluate their effectiveness, and identify gaps in research.

Literature sources: A systematic search was performed on Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar using combinations of the keywords "rhizosphere engineering", "plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria", "synthetic microbial consortia", "root exudates" and "sustainable intensification". After eliminating duplicates and screening for relevance, 64 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria and were included in the thematic synthesis.

Key findings: The literature analysis pointed out six main themes: microbial inoculants and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria; synthetic microbial consortia (SynCom) development; root exudate-mediated signaling and recruitment; and soil amendments namely biochar and organic matter; host-plant genetics and breeding methods; and multi-omics/AI-assisted precision approaches. In terms of these themes, it has been established that microbial and amendment-based interventions significantly enhance nutrient use efficiency, resistance to abiotic stress and yield stability at greenhouse and pot conditions, while effect sizes were found to be significantly diminished and more variable under field conditions.

Gaps to be addressed: Important gaps in this field pertain to restricted validation in the field and over multiple seasons, poor formulation and shelf-life methods for microbial products, inadequate long-term soil health monitoring, lack of socioeconomic and cost-benefit data in smallholder situations, and lack of harmonized regulations for the use of microbial bio-fertilizers.

Summary: Rhizosphere engineering provides a scientific basis and a promising route toward achieving sustainable intensification of agriculture.