Recent Research on Trichoderma in Biological Control and Plant Growth Promotion: A Descriptive Review of Taxonomic Reporting, Species–Target Networks, and Field-Validation Gaps

Trichoderma is among the most extensively studied fungal genera for biological control and plant growth promotion. We conducted a descriptive quantitative review of English-language original articles published from January 2021 to July 2025 to describe application categories, taxonomic representation, species–target networks, geographical patterns, and experimental settings. Searches in Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect retrieved 4643 records, of which 335 met the eligibility criteria. Biofungicide studies predominated among the included articles (219/335; 65.4%), while T. harzianum (110/335; 32.8%) and T. asperellum (65/335; 19.4%) were the most frequently reported taxa. Fifty-six articles (16.7%) reported the agent only as Trichoderma spp., limiting species-level comparisons across studies. A field component was reported in 98 studies (29.3%), whereas 237 (70.7%) were restricted to laboratory and/or greenhouse conditions. A limited subset also examined non-crop targets, including mosquito vectors. The findings support improved taxonomic reporting and further field validation, while formulation stability and input compatibility, not systematically assessed here, are proposed as additional research priorities. In the Brazilian case study, products containing Trichoderma accounted for 15.1% of the biological-product registrations in the analyzed AGROFIT dataset. This descriptive synthesis provides a basis for prioritizing research toward the integration of Trichoderma-based products into sustainable crop-management programs.