Microbial technologies for sustainable agriculture
Marcus Meadows-Smith, CEO of BioConsortia, looks at how a new generation of biologicals is transforming crop production and why the science behind them matters more than ever
The numbers are well known but bear repeating. Global food demand is projected to increase by 50-70 % by 2050, driven less by population growth and more by structural shifts in how food is consumed. Rising incomes in emerging markets are accelerating demand for resource-intensive foods, such as meat, dairy and processed products.
At the same time, urbanisation, food waste, biofuel production and supply chain inefficiencies are placing additional pressure on agricultural systems, while climate volatility is increasing the need for more resilient and reliable production.
The tools that have underpinned agricultural productivity for the past half-century- synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, broad-spectrum pesticides and high-input farming systems- are facing mounting scrutiny. Their environmental costs, from nitrous oxide emissions and waterway eutrophication to declining soil biodiversity, are increasingly difficult to ignore.
This is not an argument against chemistry. Modern agriculture could not feed the world without it. But it is an argument for rethinking the chemistry and, increasingly, for looking beyond it. Microbial technologies represent one of the most compelling frontiers in that rethinking. biofertilisers, biopesticides, biostimulants and biocontrol agents, have been discussed as a growth sector for the better part of two decades. For much of that time, however, reality lagged the promise.
Many early products delivered inconsistent results in the field, suffered from poor shelf stability and struggled to compete with the reliable performance of synthetic inputs. The sector was associated, fairly or not, with the organic niche rather than mainstream agronomy.
That assessment is now substantially out of date. The global agricultural biologicals market is projected to reach $ 27.9 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate( CAGR) of around 14 %. More significantly, the growth is increasingly coming from conventional, high-input farming systems, not just specialist growers seeking organic certification.
Mainstream agronomists and row crop farmers are adopting biological inputs and their expectations are correspondingly higher. They want products that work reliably across variable soils and climates, are compatible with existing farm chemistry and can be integrated into standard agronomic practice without adding cost or complexity.
Meeting those expectations has required a step change in the underlying science. That is now happening. The growth is increasingly coming from conventional, high-input farming systems, not just specialist growers. Mainstream agronomists want products that work reliably, are compatible with existing chemistry and integrate without complexity.
Science of microbial selection
Understanding why the new generation of microbials performs better than its predecessors requires some
A market coming of age
Agricultural biologicals, the broad category encompassing microbial
Figure 1 – Additional yield from adding Always-N vs. 25 % additional fertiliser in various crops
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