Novozymes Works With Microbes to Save Soil
This simple truth describes effortlessly what we see in forests, fields, and farmlands worldwide; a little water, dirt, and sunlight and you have everything you need to feed a vibrant ecosystem. There is so much more to soils than wet dirt, though. A mere teaspoon of healthy soil contains more microbes than there are people on our planet. These microbes make up the soil microbiome, the dynamic community of microorganisms comprised of bacteria, archaea, and fungi that interact with plants in the soil. Each soil microbiome is different, influenced by environment, soil type, local climate, plant species, and nutrients.
Nature’s Problem Solver
Novozymes thinks of microbes as nature’s problem solvers and works with them to help farmers solve some of the most pressing issues facing farms today. Broadly described as agricultural biologicals, Novozymes’ microbes enhance nutrient availability, stimulate growth and yield, and protect against pests. When added to a crop, a farmer can augment their farm’s soil microbiome with the microbes that help solve problems they’re facing; for instance, phosphorus solubility.
Phosphorus Solubilization
Phosphorus is a key nutrient for healthy crop growth and yield maximization, however, plants can only use the nutrient in a bioavailable form. That type of phosphorus is difficult to maintain in soils since it tends to change into different chemical forms in the soil. Novozymes BioAg uses penicillium bilaiae, a soil fungus that converts, or solubilizes, soil-bound phosphorus into its bioavailable state. Farmers get the most out of the phosphorus they put on their farms because the microbe makes it bioavailable to the crop. Adding microbes to their seeds saves farmers money, by reducing the total amount of phosphorus they need to use, and maximizing their crop’s potential, increasing their overall profit. Phosphorus solubilization is important for the environment, as well. Excess phosphorus can leach off farms and into waterways, causing harm to those biological systems. When plants take up more soil phosphorus, with the help of microbes, there is less left behind to move off the farm, where it does not belong.
The Acre Study
Clean waterways and healthy soils are not the only areas of sustainability that Novozymes BioAg is concerned with. We live on a planet with a growing population and finite land, which means we need to do much more with the limited resources we have. Recently, Novozymes conducted The Acre Study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) focused on the combined effect of Novozymes’ microbes and enzymes on one acre of corn. What they found is that its technologies can help produce more feed, food, and energy, while reducing CO2 emissions, compared to an acre grown without biological solutions.
A Part of the Solution
If the same set of products were applied to every corn acre and the products from those acres, in the U.S., we could produce, 2.3 billion more pounds of animal feed, 9 billion more chickens, 10 billion more gallons of bioethanol, 130 million more gallons of biodiesel, and 21 TWh more bioelectricity, annually. We could also avoid 87 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents, which has the same effect as taking 18 million U.S. cars off the road for a year. Using the power of nature’s own problem solvers, microbes, and enzymes, Novozymes is part of the solution to feeding more people on existing agricultural land. They know that the sun and soil are critical to feeding our planet and are working with nature to solve the most critical issues facing agriculture, food, and our environment.
To learn more about how Novozymes is driving performance and sustainability on farms, click here: https://biosolutions.novozymes.com/en/bioag
Three generations of farmer stand in a corn field, enjoying an ear of corn.