“It is too early to go into detail, but the Alliance currently has two new products in early development - one in corn and one in soy - and we are also developing new transformational technologies with an initial focus on broad acre crops,” said Shawn Semones, director of BioAg R&D, in an exclusive interview with FeedNavigator.
“We are working on several leads and are in the process of testing a number of microbial strains. In 2014 alone, the Alliance tested hundreds of microbial strains in 170,000 field plots across 70 US locations. This year, we plan to test thousands of strains in up to 500,000 field plots across the US,” explained Semones.
He said top strains in corn and soybeans had shown a four bushel per acre and two bushel per acre average yield advantage over untreated checks respectively, even against a backdrop of overall record yields in 2014.
This initial screening advanced 25 strains in corn and 25 strains in soybeans for next stage confirmation, based on promising yield performance, he said.
A meeting of minds
The BioAg Alliance is a joint venture that brings together Novozymes’ strengths within microbial discovery, application development and fermentation and Monsanto’s seeds and traits discovery, field-testing and extensive commercial network.
Under the agreement, Monsanto and Novozymes are maintaining independent research programs to identify microbial targets. Novozymes is responsible for production and supply of the microbial solutions to Monsanto, while Monsanto is leading field testing, registration and commercialization of all alliance products.
“The Alliance is dedicated to fundamentally enhancing the research and development of naturally derived microbial technology to significantly increase productivity of the world’s crops,” said Semones.
“The growing world population and changing diets create a need to produce more crops from our arable land whilst using fewer resources. So we are working to help farmers meet this demand in a sustainable way for the benefit of agriculture, consumers, the environment and society at large.”
Sustainable solutions
He said the Alliance was looking at solutions that could help increase yields in a variety of “sustainable” ways, by improving nutrient uptake, promoting growth and protecting plants from insects, weeds and diseases.
“We are working to find new naturally occurring microbes that can offer real benefits to growers - benefits such as improving nutrient uptake, promoting growth and yield, and providing insect control and disease protection.
These emerging - and sustainable - solutions can act as a supplement to every farmer’s toolbox and have the potential to help increase a farmer’s harvest - an important step in supporting the growing demands of our planet.”
Microbial-based solutions are derived from various naturally-occurring microbes such as bacteria and fungi. Today, microbials make up about two-thirds of the $2.6 billion market for agricultural biologicals, according to the BioAg Alliance.