The recent workshop in Évora, Portugal, brought together stakeholders from 27 countries to discuss the potential and challenges of using beneficial root microbes in agriculture. Participants reviewed regulatory hurdles and updates in the EU, the need for optimized agronomic practices and the significance of knowledge sharing in the scientific community.
A comprehensive report of Working Group 4 (WG4) will soon be available, summarizing the key insights and proposed actions for the advanced microbial applications in sustainable farming.
Please find here some of the presentations given by invited speakers.
We would like to thank Isabel Brito for the organization and Matteo Galli for the moderation of the discussion during of the workshop
The workshop held in Évora, Portugal, on September 19th and 20th brought together around 50 participants on site and as many online, representing a total of 27 countries. The event featured a diverse range of speakers and participants, including farmers, traders, inoculum producers, policy makers, and academic researchers. This diversity greatly enriched the discussions on the potential and limitations of using root-associated beneficial microbes in agriculture.
The aim of the workshop was to bring together stakeholders from different levels of the inoculum value chain, including development and production processes, regulation, distribution and use in the field, allowing each group to share their point of view and highlight knowledge gaps.
The current regulatory situation for beneficial root microbes in the European Union faces many challenges, ranging from the terminology defined in the legal framework to the complex certification process, which the participants unanimously agreed to be too long to cope with the market challenges and current needs of farmers. However, there are promising changes on the horizon. New regulation is being introduced to simplify the marketability of single microorganism and consortia products, together with an ongoing review to extend the list of microorganisms in the component material category (CMC) 7 of the Fertilising Products Regulation, also known as biostimulants.
More targeted ways of developing inoculants, tailored to specific cropping systems and local conditions are under development. Additionally, the adjustment of agronomic practices to make better use of native microbial populations has been demonstrated.
The importance of training end users as well as upstream actors and optimising knowledge transfer was recognized by all stakeholders.
The workshop also addressed topical issues related to the study of beneficial root microbes. Despite extensive research in recent years, a comprehensive understanding of their performance and their complex interactions remains elusive. In this regard, new insights to overcome performance inconsistencies such as storage/application conditions or breeding programs, and the need to quantify the risks of using or not using microbial inoculants, were some of the aspects debated.
As part of the objectives of Working Group 4 (WG4) and as a follow-up to this workshop, a detailed report will be produced. This document will summarise the issues and opinions raised during the discussion and provide a comprehensive analysis of the barriers and key challenges associated with the use of beneficial root microbes in agriculture.
