Chiang Mai Journal of Science

     As a main component of soil microbiota arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a benefi cial role in the agro-ecosystems. Introduction of AMF inoculum as a biofertilizer to the rice cultivation system is one of the environmentally healthy solutions that may increase crop productivity and yield, when compare to the non-AMF relationships. Within an ecosystem, both biotic and abiotic factors affect the diversity, distribution, and ecological role of AMF. Here we reviewed the effect of the variables including production area, environmental conditions, agricultural management systems, rice varieties, and different growth stages of the host on dynamics and structure of the AMF community mainly in the rice fi elds. Understanding of this co-relation is required to explore their future enrolment in agriculture. To ensure food security, identifi cation of all variables that may make indigenous AMF presence and active in different rice growing systems needs to be done in order to explore this specifi c fungus-root interaction.