A soil ecological approach to increasing Australian crop productivity. The objective of this project is to use emerging genomics technologies to identify and characterize soil bacteria that allow the

Description

A soil ecological approach to increasing Australian crop productivity. The objective of this project is to use emerging genomics technologies to identify and characterize soil bacteria that allow the replacement of current agricultural fertilisers, which have significant environmental and economic disadvantages, with sustainable biological fertilisers. Soil bacteria can greatly enhance phosphate solubilization and hence availability for plant growth. Beneficial microbes will be identified from our existing soil collection and their performance and persistence optimised. Concurrently, our industry partners will develop suitable microbial formulations for application. The outcomes of the project will be the use of biological fertilisers to enhance crop productivity in an environmentally sustainable manner.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0503 - Soil Sciences. Lead: A/Prof Matthew Denton