<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:italic>Meloidogyne</jats:italic> spp. are microscopic, obligatory endoparasites with worldwide distribution which cause severe damage to agricultural crops. The present study revealed the nematicidal activity of <jats:italic>Streptomyces antibioticus</jats:italic> strain M7 against <jats:italic>Meloidogyne incognita</jats:italic>. The culture supernatant of the isolate caused 100% J2 mortality after 24 h and inhibited egg hatching (only 3%). In addition, the nematicidal activity of actinomycins V, X<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and D purified from strain M7 was also checked. In vitro studies displayed 97.0–99.0% juvenile mortality and 28.0–44.0% egg hatching after 168 h at 240 µg/ml of actinomycin, with LD<jats:sub>50</jats:sub> (lethal dose) values of 28–120 µg/ml. In vivo study further validated the nematicidal activity of strain M7, where nematode infested tomato plants treated with culture supernatant/cells/solvent extract showed reduction in root galls and egg masses per plant by 50.0–62.06% and 53.48–76.74%, respectively, and significantly enhanced the shoot length (54.67–76.39%), root length (36.45–64.88%), shoot fresh weight (111–171.77%), root fresh weight (120–163.33%), shoot dry weight (54.45–145.45%), and root dry weight (100–133.3%) over the nematode infested plants treated with water. Furthermore, tomato plants treated with cells/culture supernatant/extract of strain M7 without nematode infestation also showed significant increase in various plant growth parameters. Thus, the outcome of the study revealed the potential of <jats:italic>S. antibioticus</jats:italic> strain M7 and actinomycins produced from it to be developed as safe nematicidal agents to control the root knot nematodes, and to increase the crop yield.