The human population is predicted to reach 9 billion people by 20501 and there is a need to increase crop production on current agricultural land to meet the rising demand for food. Farmers routinely manage both plant and soil nutrition to increase crop yields. However, active management of soil microbiomes to stimulate crop growth is still in its infancy. Here, we present a patented technology to engineer soil microbiomes to increase crop production.
Bioprime2 is a ferment of molasses that is routinely applied as seed coating, or as foliar and soil spray. It contains many diverse carbon compounds including 2,3-Butanediol and acetoin which directly stimulate plant growth3. Bioprime stimulates certain microbial taxa (e.g. Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria) while suppressing others (e.g. Alphaproteobacteria). Bioprime has been routinely applied to vegetables (e.g. carrots), strawberries, and table grapes in the horticulture industry for many years to control diseases (e.g. Pythium, Fusarium, Sclerotinia,) and has been trialled in broad-acre agriculture.
We conducted an on-farm potato trial in 2018 where Bioprime was applied (100 L/ha) into a soil previously amended with compost (40 t/ha in 2013) and into an unamended soil. Treatments containing Bioprime resulted in a significant increase in marketable potato yields (+33.8% for Bioprime and compost; and 33.2% for Bioprime P ≤ 0.039) while compost on its own did not (P = 0.214). This was despite the historic compost application still being identifiable by soil chemical parameters (e.g. 30% more carbon, 100% more nitrate, and 11% more phosphate). The soil microbiome was also lastingly altered by both Bioprime and compost amendments as determined by ARISA and shown by principle component analysis for bacteria, archaea, and to a lesser degree fungi.
Bioprime on its own and combined with compost significantly increased potato yields highlighting the potential of this technology to improve crop production even on less fertile soils by engineering the soil microbiome and thus help feed the ever-growing world population.