Doctoral candidate discovers unusual bio-inoculant

A final year doctoral candidate in the School of Agriculture at University of Venda, Francina Bopape recently discovered a novel type of soil bacterium which has huge potential for producing organic nitrogen fertiliser. Because of its novelty and significance, the finding was published by the American Society for Microbiology in January this year.
It was deemed necessary to announce the information to the international research community through the specialist scientific journal called Microbiology Resource Announcements (MRA 9(2) e01122-19).
According to a media statement from the University, part of Bopape’s research project is aimed at helping small-scale farmers who produce bean crops. “Some field crops, particularly the bean types such as soybean and others are unique in the sense that they take up nitrogen gas and convert it into nitrogen fertilizer. In general, all field crops require this fertiliser for growth and ultimately the production of grain yield. It is for this reason that farmers apply commercial chemical nitrogen fertilizer (which is quite expensive) on crops,” the statement reads.
“However, the bean types of plants can circumvent the need for this expensive fertilizer if they are grown in a soil that harbours indigenous bacteria which then form small round structures on the roots which enable the manufacturing of the organic nitrogen fertiliser by the plant. During planting, commercial farmers often mix the bean seed with commercially available soil bacteria in order to enhance the subsequent manufacturing of the nitrogen fertiliser by the plants as they grow from seedlings to adult plants. This means that, farmers save on the cost of inputs for producing the crop.”
Eastonce Gwata from the University’s Department of Crop Science was quoted to have said that the results from Bopape’s work have several positive implications particularly for bio-inoculant technology. “The next step in the study is to understand the mechanism at work in the strain before attempting its genetic enhancement for the benefit of farmers.”