Agricultural use of beneficial microorganisms in the aspect of environmental protection Erasmus Project

Project Title

Agricultural use of beneficial microorganisms in the aspect of environmental protection

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; Natural sciences; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Under field conditions plants interact with a diversity of microorganisms, however, both conventional and organic agriculture already affected the soil microbiome leading to decrease of soil quality, nutritional value of crops and creating necessity to use a range of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides to avoid spread of unwanted pathogenic microbes. These substances affect not only the plant microbial foes but also the friendly ones that help the plant to establish homeostasis and to reach the nutritional quality of products that support the health of the consumers. XXI century brings us new possibilities to develop novel methods to rebuild soil and plant microbiota, however, this aim needs the increase of the food producer’s understanding and knowledge. While most people already accept that our health depends on our body microbiota it is still poorly understood that plant development devoid of associating microbes is simply an artefact of the laboratory conditions. The “come back” of plant security microbes is possible through the bioaugmentation strategy allowing microbes to create optimal conditions for promoting specific crop growth under harsh conditions and will allow reducing the use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides. This would mean the reduction of costs for the farmers, better resistance of plants to common episodes of drought due to global changes, reduction of N2O emission and fertilizer run-off. The most common and potent plant inhabitants are endophytes that include fungi and bacteria hiding within plant tissues. While they are present within plants no visible symptoms can be noticed but they are able to produce growth hormones, antioxidants and enzymes (such as ACC) capable to attenuate stress factors such as drought, salinity, toxic metal pollution, extreme temperatures, high CO2 etc. Properly selected endophytes can be a potent tool against pathogens and abiotic factors. In addition endophytic microbes can stimulate the development of arbuscular mycorrhizae that is the most important interface between a plant and soil. Mycorrhizal fungi grow intraradicaly but also form extraradical hyphal net helping plant roots to increase the absorption of nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, and helping to alleviate drought stress by increasing water access and creating proper soil structure to attenuate erosion. Providing well selected microbial consortia and appropriate agricultural practices has greater potential than a single strain. The reduction in intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides can allow for maintaining environment and human health while the cost of cultivation can be importantly decreased. The endophytes can be still important and maintained if the fungicides are used while mycorrhizal fungi resist only selected fungicides such as pencycuron or azoxystrobin. Thus, it is important to provide the farmers and policymakers with the protocols concerning the use of chemical substances in case of problems with pathogens. For endophytes the best source of stains are within close relatives of cultivars that still exist in nature. The Polish group already have several strains of endophytic fungi specific to wheat varieties cultivated in the area. Mycorrhizal fungi from the region are also kept in the pot cultures but within the project we will rather teach farmers how to obtain the inoculum themselves –this again needs special training and workshops available for farmers.
The project addresses local communities that are involved in ecological production of food and will help to optimize organic agriculture, ensuring sustainability and lower concentration of pesticides used. Shortage of information to the farmers, and lack of application technology are prevalent. Development of the microbial products is hindered due to the lack of understanding not only among farmers but also policymakers and often among school teachers educating future farmers. The strategy is to bridge the gap between research and farmers, to embed academic knowledge into the policy process from the beginning. International cooperation will help to exchange experiences in solving problems and will stimulate sharing the microbial strains that can be of importance under changing climate. The guidelines, protocols and leaflets prepared for farmers and basic knowledge concerning the subject will be shared and adopted in each country participating in local language. Each partner will prepare and maintain the demonstration field experiment that will be monitored and will be used during summer school and open days for farmers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 274382 Eur

Project Coordinator

Association de Développement Rural International du Bas-Ségala & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Karesi Belediyesi
• STOWARZYSZENIE ARID
• GROWTH COOP S.COOP.AND
• Instytut Hodowli i Aklimatyzacji Roslin Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy Zaklad Doswiadczalny Grodkowice
• Balıkesir University
• FUNDACION UNIVERSITAT JAUME I-EMPRESA