The era of agricultural change is coming, microbes are the future trend

The era of agricultural change is coming, microbes are the future trend

The era of great change that belongs to agriculture is coming. We humans have experienced the primitive agriculture of the Stone Age, the farming civilization of the Iron Age, and the chemical agriculture of the industrial age. Now we are entering the era of bio-agriculture and eco-agriculture.

This conclusion is not a lie. Academician Qian Xuesen predicted that microbial agriculture is the future trend more than 10 years ago. Here again, it is because of the national research strategy that has just been launched in the United States.

Microbiome Research - International Technology Strategy Highlands

The White House announced on May 13 that the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) was launched. This is another major national research project launched by the Obama administration following the brain plan, medicine, and anti-cancer “moon landing”. Agriculture is an important part of the NMI program. The US government has invested US$121 million in this, and the Bill Gates Fund (BMGF) has set up a special fund of US$100 million for this purpose. There are also many public funds and universities that have invested millions of dollars in this total, totaling US$500 million. . Microbiological research has become the strategic "highland" for a new round of international scientific and technological revolution.

Microbial agriculture, an important part

Microbial research has made important advances in the medical field, especially in the study of human intestinal microflora. These studies have reshaped our understanding of human health and have made breakthroughs in addressing cancer obesity. It can be said that human microbiology is epoch-making for medical development.

Compared to the results already achieved in the medical field, in the agricultural field, microbial research is still in its infancy, which means more opportunities.

Microbiology and microbiome research has a wide range of applications in agriculture:

Environmental aspects: Microorganisms can repair soil, restore soil vigor, reduce heavy metal pollution, and not cause secondary pollution. Microorganisms can also purify water and remove toxic gases from the air.

Crop growth: Microorganisms can promote the absorption of nutrients by crops, promote the growth of crops, and improve the immunity of crops. These do not pollute the environment and agricultural products like chemicals and hormones.

Weeding and insecticidal: Microbial herbicides, insecticides and fungicides can effectively remove grass, insecticides, and do not pose a threat to the natural enemies of pests, and do not pollute the environment and crops.

Aquaculture: Microbial fermentation can turn many agricultural waste into livestock feed, such as straw, which is transformed into feed by microbial fermentation. This technology changes the characteristics of animal husbandry.

Organic fertilizer: Microbial organic fertilizer is a major advancement of organic fertilizer, and has many advantages over chemical fertilizers, refined organic fertilizers, and farmyard manure.

The era of change, seize the opportunity

In the era of great agricultural transformation, the opportunities brought to us, how should industry-related personnel seize this opportunity?

Researchers: Not only the United States, but also China has a lot of funding support for microbiology research. Financial support is on the one hand, and the openness of the US-led NMI program also provides free research and research tools for many researchers. In addition, Dr. Han Chunyu’s case also enlightened us, and we can still make breakthroughs based on individual abilities and resources.

Investment company: Come invest in this field, and start early before the media and the promoters have blown up the bubble. Large agricultural companies have invested huge sums of money to do microbial research. The microbial agriculture-related startups in the United States have sprung up, and the future agricultural giants are here.

Entrepreneurship: Microorganisms are widely used in agriculture. If you understand the technology, you can cut into one of them. With the development of the entire industry, funds will favor this industry, and with the help of the Internet and the means, you can also make your project start quickly. There are many microbial agricultural projects on the foreign website kickstarter.

Farmers: Individual farmers can pay more attention to the technical application of microbial agriculture, use these to improve the quality of their own agricultural products, reduce production costs, and expand multi-output. Even if you don't use these "high-tech" microbial technologies, you can use the "earth" microbial technology, which is a multi-faceted ecological agriculture (such as natural farming law and Pumen agriculture). In fact, a good ecological environment is the balance of microbial systems between plants, animals and the environment (air, water, soil).

(Original title: The era of agricultural change: bio-agriculture has become a new hot trend, the United States has risen to national strategy)