Pesticides Degradation Through Microorganisms Immobilized on Agro-Industrial Waste: A Promising Approach for Their Elimination from Aquatic Environments

Widespread use of pesticides in agriculture causes adverse impacts on non-target organisms and environmental pollution. Efficient and sustainable pesticide removal alternatives must be developed to reduce pesticide environmental impacts. Recently, bioremediation based on immobilized microorganisms has been proposed as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective approach for pesticide degradation in water. Agro-industrial wastes are produced in large quantities in crop fields; their high availability, low cost, and potential for reuse make them ideal support materials for microbial immobilization. This systematic review, conducted through the PRISM 2020 methodology, compiles recent research on using agro-industrial waste to immobilize microorganisms for pesticide degradation. The identified studies highlight corn straw as the most studied agro-industrial waste, while the organophosphorus insecticides, chlorpyrifos, and methyl parathion were the most representative pesticides; in the identified studies, pesticide degradation was conducted mainly by bacteria of the Acinetobacter, Bacillus, and Pseudomonas genera. Overall, microbial immobilization significantly enhanced pesticide degradation, rendering it a viable bioremediation strategy for pesticide-contaminated water.