AGROCHEMICALS
‣ Matching chemistry
The work also led on to the second driver , gene editing . This , says Meadows-Smith , is “ the unleashing of the natural power of the microbes , rather than genetic modification , where you are taking the genes of one genus and putting them into another ”. The process starts with full genomic sequencing of the microbe so that its potential can be evaluated and enhanced . Thus , for example , not only can their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen be assessed and enhanced so that they carry on fixing nitrogen in the form of ammonia at a level suitable to grow corn , wheat and other crops . The third driver is that AMS enables BioConsortia to develop a pipeline of biologicals as good as chemistry . For example , it has used the platform to develop three different biological species of microbes for use as fungicides and these have been proven in extensive field tests across the US and Europe . The tests on each of these in two different fungicidal formulations on cucurbits in Spain have proven them all to give nearly 90 % control , far more than the leading biological product , Serenade , and on a par with traditional chemical products ( Figure 2 ). “ The remarkable thing is that we didn ’ t just find one product better than the leading products on the market , but a host of them . This shows not just a high level of efficacy and consistency , but also the power of the platform to make multiple discoveries of different species of microbes ,” Meadows-Smith says .
Nitrogen fixation
N-fixation is the fourth driver . The deal with Mosaic was concluded on the back of greenhouse trials carried out in 2020 . These found that where doubling nitrogen fertiliser application to 50 ppm increased crop biomass by 8 %, BioConsortia ’ s wild-type N-fixing microbe achieved 13 % and the gene-edited microbes reached 25 %. By contrast , Klebsiella , a gramnegative bacterium , achieved 4 % and a standard commercial product actually decreased biomass by 8 % in this experiment . Some of the products , Meadows- Smith adds , have also been proven effective post-harvest at a level of efficacy no microbial had previously achieved with a feasible cost-ofgoods . In trials , multiple fungicides have been shown to achieve excellent control of post-harvest pathogens on apples . One , BCI-F3 , shows efficacy comparable to synthetic chemistry , with the added bonus of leaving no regulated residue , and maintains efficacy at higher dilutions . Another , BCI-F5 , which is a single grampositive Bacillus strain , shows strong in vitro activity against postharvest pathogens , such as Mucor , Penicillium and Colletotrichum . Finally and most importantly , BioConsortia is driven by its business model . Macro-trends arising from consumers , growers , regulators and the environment , it believes , all offer enormous potential . The addressable N-fixation market alone amounts to about $ 64 billion / year , while biopesticides are worth about $ 3 billion and $ 1.5 billion / year respectively and are both growing at 15 %/ year . •
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Marcus Meadows-Smith
CEO
BIOCONSORTIA , INC . info @ bioconsortia . com www . bioconsortia . com
Chemical standard BioConsortia ' s biological products
% Disease control
Market leading biological product
Untreated control
Figure 2 – BioConsortia formulations v . standard market chemical & biological crop protection
44 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981