The growing world population needs a growing food production. And the food of the future must be produced more sustainably and with less environmental impact than is the case today.
IBIS, which will be headquartered at Technical University of Denmark (DTU), aims to enable solutions to these challenges using biofertilisers.
Biofertilizers are microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria that help plants absorb nutrients from the soil. And biofertilizers have a long list of advantages over the artificial fertilizers used today, says Rasmus J.N. Frandsen, Associate Professor at DTU Bioengineering and Director of IBIS:
"Some microorganisms can increase plant availability of soil-bound nutrients, while others convert atmospheric nitrogen into plant available ammonium. Collectively this can lower the requirement for artificial fertilizers and reduce harm to the environment. At the same time, biofertilizers can be produced locally and with much lower energy consumption than artificial fertilizers, making them both cheaper and more sustainable."
We lack knowledge and free data
The biggest obstacle to the use of microbial biofertilizers on an industrial scale globally is the lack of data and understanding of how microorganisms behave in different field conditions. We don't yet fully understand when and how biofertilizers work, how to document their properties, or how different manufacturing methods influence their performance.
To unlock the full potential of biofertilisers, the partner universities in the project, which come from Denmark, India and South Africa, will collaborate to conduct large-scale, standardized experiments to generate the very large data sets and deeper understanding that are needed to start actual production.
"Each partner has unique knowledge and resources that, when combined, enable us to write a 'cookbook' on how to develop biofertilizers. The purpose of the initiative is not to sell biofertilizer, but to provide the recipes and data sets that enable others to set up local production facilities around the world. And the cookbook will be free, in the sense that all the data we create will be freely available," explains Rasmus J.N. Frandsen about the partners and their mission.
Benefits for small and large farms
With strong research groups in both the Global South and North, IBIS has a unique opportunity to contribute knowledge about the biology, production and performance of biofertilizers in the field that is lacking today.
In this way, IBIS underpins the Novo Nordisk Foundation's work to support society in the green transition, says Claus Felby, Vice President for Agri-Food at the Novo Nordisk Foundation:
"IBIS represents an important step towards promoting high-yield sustainable agriculture by creating the foundation for reliable biofertilizer solutions that benefit both small farmers and large agricultural operations worldwide."
