Silicon Potential to Mitigate Plant Heavy Metals Stress for Sustainable Agriculture: a Review

In recent decades, environmental pollution due to presence of toxic metal elements come across globally with severe threats to plants, soil, humans, and animals. The major causes behind this are rapid and injudicious industrialization, intensive farming, faulty mining activities, and wastes which get accumulated in the soil at higher toxic concentration after long term exposure. Even a slight upsurge in the heavy metal concentration beyond permissible limit causes harmful effects to all the living entities. The acquaintance of plants to metal contaminated growing media diminishes crop performance by altering vegetative and reproductive development that eventually affect sustainability of agricultural production. Silicon (Si) exhibits a significant key role in minimizing heavy metal poisonousness in plants. Amending soil with silicates reduces toxic effect of heavy metals by involving various mechanisms and stimulates crop development by lessening various stresses due to biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we reviewed the most recent research development using silicon as amendment for mitigation of adverse impacts of heavy metals in plants. The paper will be describing about the advanced technologies related to usage of silicon in crop cultivation to enhance sustainable crop production by altering and (or) improving metal contaminated soils.