Pesticide Degradation by Soil Bacteria: Mechanisms, Bioremediation Strategies, and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture

Modern agriculture relies on pesticides for pest management and yield improvement; however, pesticide soil persistence creates major environmental and health threats through bioaccumulation, groundwater contamination, and harm to non-target organisms. This comprehensive review synthesizes current research findings on pesticide breakdown by soil bacteria and discusses their mechanisms and implications for sustainable agriculture. The persistence of pesticide classes, including organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, triazines, and organochlorines, in soil varies from days to years, based on chemical structure and environmental conditions. Soil bacteria Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, Arthrobacter, and Bacillus break down these compounds using enzymatic pathways, including hydrolysis, oxidation, and nitroreduction, while plasmid-encoded genes and horizontal gene transfer boost soil bacterial efficiency. Pesticide degradation rates are heavily influenced by environmental factors, including pH, temperature, moisture, and organic matter, as optimal conditions enhance microbial activity, whereas stressors like drought act as inhibitors. Bioremediation methods, including natural attenuation, bioaugmentation, and synthetic consortia, offer environmentally friendly solutions, with omics technologies and synthetic biology enabling the development of better degraders. Combining microbial isolation techniques with kinetic assays and met-agenomics enables researchers to identify pathways. The use of modified soil bacteria in agriculture adheres to regulatory standards, ensuring safety while addressing scalability issues in developing regions. Bacterial pesticide breakdown reduces residue levels, enhances soil fertility, and supports resilient agroecosystems. Field-scale validation and AI-driven predictive models are essential for optimizing degradation under climate change conditions and demonstrate solutions as an interdisciplinary approach to mitigate pesticide impacts and support sustainable agriculture.