“The impending global population explosion will require a doubling of food production within the next few decades,” says Marcus Meadows-Smith with BioConsortia. “Increased production however is limited by reduced access to arable land, volatile climates and ever more stringent crop input regulations to protect against further damage to the environment.”
Improved crop quality and yields
As a result, the agricultural industry has seen a push toward more research and development of biological products. “At BioConsortia, we are using an innovative proprietary Advanced Microbial Selection (AMS) process to identify teams of complementary microbes that promote the expression of beneficial traits and enhanced yields in crops,” said Meadows-Smith. They can be used in seed treatment, improve fertilizer use efficiency and stress tolerance as well as control pests and diseases. “The focus is on improving crop quality and yields with the same or reduced inputs,” added Meadows-Smith. Opposite to traditional biological products, the AMS process produces teams of microbes that are multifunctioning and more efficacious. “Most importantly, AMS consortia products are discovered in about nine months versus 3-5 years for traditional biological products.”
First results
Lab tests on some early stage consortia from recent years have shown consistent 10-30 percent increases in plant biomass, root weight and sugar content across a wide range of crops under multiple applied stresses. US field trialing started in 2014 with corn and wheat. Early vigor, bio-stimulation and bio-pesticide research work is being done on tomatoes and leafy vegetables at the company’s research facilities in New Zealand. In the coming year, tomato and leafy veg trials will be run in California, Florida, New Zealand, Italy and Spain to test under as many different circumstances as possible. Soil conditions vary widely from region to region and the company wants to ensure that a biological product that works well in one region also does in the others.
All products developed by BioConsortia are non-GMO as the microbes within each consortia are a team of naturally occurring beneficial soil and plant-colonizing microorganisms. The company’s objective is to exploit the natural symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes to improve plant traits in a rapid and cost effective way.
