Microbes can avoid food shortages
A better research on the role of Microbiology in agriculture, combined with the use of new technologies, can help reduce the food shortage that is already associated to population growth. This is what a new report from the American Academy of microbiology."The microbes are essential partners in all aspects of plant physiology, but human efforts to improve its productivity have focused only on the plants," explained Ian Sanders, director of the organization that produced the study.Responsible, researcher at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, believes the optimisation of communities of microbes that live in and around these plants can reduce "substantially" the need for fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides.The report goes on to explain that the fungi associated with roots of plants can increase the efficiency of phosphate uptake in crops such as potatoes and rice; and that plants with sugar-producing bacteria are resistant to drought and produce more foliage and deeper roots. At the same time, there are viruses associated with fungi that allow some plants to grow in soils with high temperatures.The study started from an essential principle: in 2050 the world population will be 9 billion people and agricultural productivity will grow between 70 and 100%. Can the microbiology help us feed everyone?Photo: under Creative Commons license
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