{"id":329487,"date":"2020-02-05T15:33:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=329487"},"modified":"2020-02-18T18:14:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T21:14:10","slug":"early-inoculants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/early-inoculants\/","title":{"rendered":"Early inoculants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> has published a range of articles on bacteria-based products, such as this one in issue no. 85<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Brazil\u2019s soy industry owes a great deal of its commercial success to seminal biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) research conducted in the 1950s by crop scientists Johanna D\u00f6bereiner (1924\u20132000) and Ruy Jardim Freire (1923\u20132015). D\u00f6bereiner, a researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), faced significant resistance to her proposed use of BNF at a time when massive application of nitrogen was the norm in soy farming (see <\/em>Pesquisa FAPESP issue nos. 58<\/a> and 88<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But in the following decade, inoculants\u2014microbial products that can absorb nitrogen from the air and transfer it to the roots of plants, reducing the need for chemical nitrogen fertilizers\u2014were rapidly adopted at large scale in soy farming. This was thanks to EMBRAPA\u2019s efforts to select strains of Rhizobium<\/em> bacteria (commonly known as rhizobia) that are adapted to Brazil\u2019s soil, climate, and soybean genotypes (see <\/em>Pesquisa FAPESP issue no. 85<\/em><\/a>). Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> has extensively covered research into biological nitrogen fixation and the development of soybean inoculants over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n

In that space of time, inoculant technologies have developed to a point where symbiosis with soybeans can fully substitute for the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Experts say that the soy industry in Brazil owes its competitiveness, to a great extent, to the use of efficient inoculants. \u201cWithout inoculants and biological fixation, soy farming would not be economically feasible in Brazil today,\u201d says crop scientist Mariangela Hungria, of the EMBRAPA Soy division in Londrina, Paran\u00e1.<\/p>\n

In the 2000s EMBRAPA launched a new class of microorganisms formed by plant-growth-promoting bacteria. The most commonly used bacterium is Azospirillum brasilense<\/em>, which also promotes biological nitrogen fixation, although not as effectively as Bradyrhizobium<\/em>. Azospirillum<\/em> supports plant growth primarily by producing phytohormones. \u201cPlant roots often grow twice as large with the product,\u201d says Hungria. \u201cThis allows them to absorb more water and nutrients from the soil, and even take up fertilizers more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent experiment at EMBRAPA\u2019s Amazon chapter, scientists demonstrated that inoculating A. brasilense<\/em> bacteria alone onto maize seeds generated nitrogen fertilizer savings of 20 kilograms per hectare and double the average crop yield for the state. \u201cFertilizer prices are high in the region due to shipping costs, making it important to find alternatives to chemical fertilizers,\u201d says crop scientist Inocencio Junior Oliveira of EMBRAPA\u2019s West Amazon chapter.<\/p>\n

Co-inoculation<\/strong>
\nIn 2014, EMBRAPA launched a co-inoculation technology that allows both types of bacteria to be applied together before planting. According to EMBRAPA, the use of the two microorganisms combined increases average yields by 16% compared to inoculation of Bradyrhizobium<\/em> alone. Eduardo Sampaio Moreira Piegas, a farmer in Mococa, S\u00e3o Paulo State, has used co-inoculation technology for around 20 years. \u201cI have never planted soybeans without inoculants, and as a result I use much less nitrogen fertilizer than is typically needed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The increasing use of inoculants has helped to improve crop yields, but has also come with challenges. One of these challenges is reconciling the use of bacteria with the pesticides applied to seeds\u2014pesticides often destroy microorganisms that are beneficial to plants. Another problem is home-made inoculants. \u201cThis is a very serious problem. We have seen many farmers attempt to make organic products on their own on their farms,\u201d says Mariangela Hungria. \u201cThe home-made inoculants we have analyzed contain everything but the target bacteria. In some concoctions, we found pathogens such as Klebsiella<\/em> e Staphylococcus<\/em>. These inoculants can cause diseases in plants, people, and animals,\u201d she cautions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first products made with nitrogen-fixing bacteria for soybean crops date back to the 1960s","protected":false},"author":468,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2821,169],"tags":[153,209,259],"coauthors":[778],"class_list":["post-329487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pesquisa-fapesp-20-years","category-technology","tag-agronomy","tag-biology","tag-chemistry","keywords-pesquisa-fapesp-20-years"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329492,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329487\/revisions\/329492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329487"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=329487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}