There is unbroken interest in soil and plant microbiomes and their important contribution in agro-systems. Plant microbiota are diverse and provide important functions for their host’s performance, and mediate functions like nutrient delivery, fitness, stress tolerance, and pathogen or pest control. Current understanding of plant-microbe interactions is helping to develop microbial products, new applications to improve crop production, and create alternatives to chemicals. Microbial ecology is an important asset for understanding the fate of applied microorganisms in a natural environment, and for affecting product development. Greater understanding of microbiome functioning will also lead to new routes of exploration.

Following the ambition of the previous conferences, we aim to link basic understanding with challenges encountered in application and to bring in novel trends how to explore and make use of microbiomes for plant production. Also, miCROPe 2024 aims to provide interesting content to scientists in academia as well as in industry and to facilitate joint discussions. Scientific sessions will address different functions of microorganisms in crop production, ranging from biocontrol to nutrition and stress resilience. Furthermore, we will address plant mechanisms, functional understanding, multipartite interactions and most importantly also address how microbiomes can be translated in field applications.