Higher agricultural production with lower nitrous oxide emission

Executive Summary

Agriculture produces 60% of the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the three main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Paradoxically, agriculture is extremely sensitive to climate change, a fact that generates the need to promote climate-smart technological innovation policies. In the present multilateral technical cooperation project (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Uruguay), the traditional benefits provided by inoculants, which include nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization and antifungal production, will be extended. In addition, new ones, including benefits of recognized environmental value such as reduction of N2O emission, and of high economic impact, such as the development of tolerance to herbicides and abiotic stress, will be incorporated through mutagenesis (non-GMO technologies). These technological innovations will increase agricultural production by >3% and reduce N2O emissions by 35% in Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to the agronomic sustainability and the consolidation of the region as a leader in the world market for inoculants.

The technological solution

The project involves the  production of new inoculants as a technological package that combines three benefits simultaneously: (i) it is applicable to a wide variety of relevant regional crops, (ii) it increases the production and quality of these crops, and (iii) drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially nitrous oxide

Results

Beneficiaries

More than 30.000 producers, technicians, researchers and students from de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Spain and Uruguay will be direct beneficiaries of this proyect. Main regional agricultural microbiology companies and consumers from the countries involved will be indirect beneficiaries.

Sustainable Development Goals

Main donors