New Microbial Solutions for Agriculture from BioAg Alliance
In Denmark, the BioAg Alliance, Monsanto’s and Novozymes’ collaboration to improve crop harvests through products containing naturally-occurring microbes, said that yield increases among top microbial strains averaged over 3 bushels per acre for corn and over 2 bushels per acre for soy.
BioAg Alliance products are currently used on more than 80 million acres of farm land, primarily in North and South America. The Alliance of Novozymes and Monsanto is targeting to provide 250-500 million acres of BioAg technology upgrades by 2025.
The BioAg Alliance will introduce two new products in 2017. Acceleron B-300 SAT is a corn inoculant based on a fungus found in soil. The fungus grows along the roots of corn plants and increases nutrient uptake to the plants. Acceleron® B-200 SAT stimulates the growth of beneficial microbes in the soil to improve nutritional uptake of soy plants, which can lead to improved soy plant health.
Among the pipeline highlights is the Corn BioYield 2 project, which builds upon the recently-launched Acceleron B-300 SAT. Field trial results in 2016 showed Corn BioYield 2 project strains – combined with Acceleron B-300 SAT – increasing corn yields by up to an average of 5 bushels per acre over a base Acceleron seed treatment. A Corn BioYield 2 product is expected to launch in 2019. In earlier stages of development are other yield-increasing products for corn and soy, and a microbial product that can protect soy plants against nematodes. The Alliance also announced that it will start developing new products for wheat, the third crop in its pipeline.
Category: Fuels
