Agricultural land degradation is a significant environmental problem on a global scale, aggravated by global climate change and large-scale use of mineral fertilizers. One of the promising solutions to this problem is the development and active introduction into practice of microbial fertilizers that stimulate the growth of agricultural plants and ensure the functions of retaining moisture and nutrients in the soil. The most important property of such microorganisms is the ability to produce exopolysaccharides (EPS) with high hygroscopicity, sorption and barrier properties. In this review, we summarize the available information on EPS producers for agricultural purposes and assess the potential of using arid ecosystems to search for and isolate new xerotolerant EPS producers that are promising for developing agricultural technologies for sustainable agriculture in regions with arid climates. We pay special attention to the poorly studied xerotolerant microbial communities of arid ecosystems in Central Asia.
K. V. Kondrasheva (Wed,) studied this question.