Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Towards sustainable agriculture and increased food security in Ethiopia : The use of beneficial native soil bacteria to increase crop drought tolerance and nutrient uptake

Pays/Région : Ethiopie

Date : 1 January 2015–31 December 2017

Identifiant : 2014-04035_VR

Présentation
Drought with low nutrient efficiency is a major agricultural problem in Ethiopian agriculture leading to poverty as agriculture is a mainstay for the country. Owning to climate change the problem will harden in near future We propose application of beneficial native soil bacteria to increase crop drought tolerance and nutrient use.

The bacteria were isolated from harsh environments in Israel and Arizona and developed for field application in Egypt. Our recent studies reveal five times greater survival and 78% higher biomass in inoculated plants under drought stress using the bacterial consortia from the harsh environments. To the best of our knowledge, such a strong improvement of drought tolerance by bacterial inoculation has not been reported before. In frame of the proposed project we prepare legal documents and optimise the bacterial beneficial effect via development of the tagging and monitoring system for the bacterial consortia and their active principles. This kind of precision management will enable us to follow the performance of the bacterial consortia under field applications. The planned research project is part of the larger framing project and deals with the major cereals in Ethiopia. Special attention is paid to the method communication to Ethiopian private sector and integration of stakeholder. The work is planned in accordance with present and emerging initiatives at Ethiopian national Swedish and global level.

Coordination : Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Financement : Swedish Research Council
Budget : 750,000 kr

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