More from lessPhosphate, a nonrenewable resource, is essential for the growth and maintenance of healthy crops. Over the next five years the agricultural use of phosphate is predicted to grow by around 3% annually. With known reserves slowly being depleted, experts project that the use of phosphate needs to be more efficient to supply agricultural demand into the future.
Currently only a small proportion of applied phosphate fertilizer can be taken up by the plant. The remainder becomes tied up in the soil. JumpStart offers a solution by increasing the availability of soil and fertilizer phosphate, allowing farmers to improve the efficiency of their conventional fertilizing methods while improving plant health and increasing yields. Simply by adding JumpStart, average yield increases of 6–7% have been reported.
A fungus as a workhorse
When applied to a field, phosphate is absorbed by minerals in the soil as well as by the plants themselves. JumpStart contains the naturally occurring fungus Penicillium bilaii, which helps increase the amount of phosphate readily available to plants by releasing bound phosphate from the soil. Designed to work effectively in soils within a wide pH range and at low soil temperatures when phosphate availability is increasingly limited, JumpStart has been shown to offer the equivalent of an extra 8 kg/ha of phosphate.
Sowing the seeds of progress
By making phosphate fertilizer more efficient, farmers can increase yields while making better use of phosphate fertilizer. Thus, not only do bioinnovations like JumpStart help farmers remain competitive in today’s market, but they also support the intelligent use of limited resources and help secure the world’s agricultural supply well into the future.