permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

Excellent books. - LL
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [compost_tea] Report proposes microbiology's grand challenge to 
help feed the world
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 20:50:30 -0800
From: Jeff Lowenfels <jeff.lowenfels@gmail.com>
Reply-To: compost_tea@yahoogroups.com
To: Mike Amaranthus <mamaranthus@charter.net>, CT CT 
<compost_tea@yahoogroups.com>, Lewis Wayne <lewiswayne2@gci.net>


WHY NOT ORDER Jeff's BEST SELLING  books:

Teaming With Microbes
http://tinyurl.com/TeamingWithMicrobes and http://tinyurl.com

Teaming With Nutrients
http://tinyurl.com/TeamingWithNutrients

<>

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130827204536.htm

Report Proposes Microbiology's Grand Challenge to Help Feed the World

"Microbes are essential partners in all aspects of plant physiology, but 
human efforts to improve plant productivity have focused solely on the 
plant," says Ian Sanders of University of Lausanne, chair of the 
colloquium that produced the report. "Optimizing the microbial 
communities that live in, on and around plants, can substantially reduce 
the need for chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides."

The report, How Microbes can Help Feed the World, is based on the 
deliberation of a group of scientific experts who gathered for two days 
in Washington DC in December 2012 to consider a series of questions 
regarding how plant-microbe interactions could be employed to boost 
agricultural productivity in an environmentally and economically 
responsible way.

It starts with a startling statistic: In order to feed the estimated 
global population of 9 billion in the year 2050, agricultural yields 
will have to increase by 70-100% .

Improved understanding of plant-microbe interactions has the potential 
to increase crop productivity by 20% while reducing fertilizer and 
pesticide requirements by 20%, within 20 years, according to the report. 
These estimates rest on the recognition that all plants rely on 
microbial partners to secure nutrients, deter pathogens and resist 
environmental stress.

The report looks in depth at the intimate relationship between microbes 
and agriculture including why plants need microbes, what types of 
microbes they need, how they interact and the scientific challenges 
posed by the current state of knowledge. It then makes a series of 
recommendations, including greater investment in research, the taking on 
of one or more grand challenges such as characterization of the complete 
microbiome of one important crop plant, and the establishment of a 
formal process for moving scientific discoveries from the lab to the field.

"New technologies are making plant-microbe ecosystems easier to study 
and investment in this area of research could have dramatic benefits," 
says Marilynn Roossinck, Pennsylvania State University, who helped 
organize the colloquium.

Report: 
http://academy.asm.org/index.php/browse-all-reports/800-how-microbes-can-help-feed-the-world?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FeedTheWorld