For a long time, we considered the agricultural practices efficient or not based on how much crop productivity can be delivered. This productivity-centered view led to the intensive use of unsustainable inorganic fertilization. To achieve sustainability in agriculture, we need to reduce plant dependence on inorganic inputs. In our project, we believe that soil microbes can be fostered to promote plant growth and increase plant productivity via a set of management techniques that we call Microbial Farming.
Microbial farming aims to increase the co-dependency between soil microbes and plant growth and productivity.
This research approaches the tripartite interaction between plant-soil-microbes. We evaluate the influence of beneficial microbes under different soil nutrient availability to determine the optimized conditions in which microbes can deliver the services of plant growth promotion. The ultimate goal is to develop innovative methods for agriculture using plant growth-promoting microbes for sustainable crop production coupled with reduced dependence on inorganic nutrient input.