The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that are possible in the next decade that would increase the U.S. food and agriculture system’s sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience.
Most of the anticipated breakthroughs are focused on technology use in the field. One example is the use of highly sensitive, field-deployable sensors and biosensors — especially water-related measurement equipment — to rapidly detect and monitor crop issues and refine inputs. Other breakthrough technologies that are on the horizon are software-focused, using advanced analytics for managing the food and agricultural systems. Finally, gene editing is seen as poised to generate traits in plants, microbes, and animals that improve efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.
If you’re a regular reader of our newsletter, you know one of my constant drumbeats is the importance of creating microbial diversity to improve crop production and reduce disease pressure. So I was glad to see the study place considerable emphasis on advances in understanding the microbiome in agriculture and harnessing this knowledge to improve crop production, transform feed efficiency, and increase resilience to stress and disease.
Research on the human microbiome has yielded many positive health benefits as we’ve gained a better understanding of the impact of resident microbes on our bodies. However, our understanding of the microbiomes in agriculture is significantly more rudimentary. We do know that complex interactions among microbes is linked to productivity and disease control. Technology will play a major role in identifying and measuring the microbiome in agriculture. As we begin to comprehend the inner workings of these relationships and learn how to better meet the needs of overall crop production, agriculture can continue to make the necessary advances to meet our future needs.
Finally, going back to my microbial diversity drumbeat, as we discover and learn more about this naturally occurring community and the complex interaction of flora and fauna, we will improve our crops’ resiliency against all sorts of outside pressures, biotic and abiotic, which are key to improving security for long-term food production.
Andaman Ag offers a large array of microbial based products that can be applied by fertigation, broadcast or foliar spray.