Abstract: Climate change, urbanization, and population increase limit food availability.  To sustain human existence, there is the need to increase food and agricultural production to mitigate the impact of these factors.  Scientists have been working for years on ways to increase food production.  From plant breeding techniques to soil science, scientists have made tremendous progress.  The rhizobiome has been proven to be important to crop production, and the impact of the rhizobiome on plant health cannot be overemphasized.  Being rich in diverse complex microbial interactions, the rhizosphere has become a major force in recent plant growth promotion studies.  The upsurge in next-generation sequencing applications with the various “omics” technologies is helping to unearth information relating to rhizosphere impact on plant growth.  Explaining the complex interactions between and across microbial species present in the rhizosphere is important to further enhance our understanding of their mechanistic and mutualistic functions.  Knowledge from this can be used in rhizosphere biome engineering for improved plant growth and yield in the face of the various biotic and abiotic challenges.  

Key words: below-ground interactions ,  climate change ,  plant growth promotion ,  plant microbiome , root exudation