Providing sub-Saharan smallholders with a cost-effective alternative to expensive artificial nitrogen fertilizer has come a step closer for British agri-biotech company Legume Technology, following the award of a grant.

The project will help develop biofertilizer technology as an affordable, accessible agricultural input for small-scale agricultural producers (SSPs) in Africa.

Legume Technology’s work focuses on natural microbes – bacteria and fungi – that have the ability to capture nitrogen, making it available to crops. Farmers in the developed world have been using these ‘biological nitrogen-fixers’ (BNFs) for years, but generally they only work on a specific crop type, the ‘legume’ family that includes peas, beans and pulses.

The project will find out how much nitrogen these microbes can fix from the atmosphere, when used in non-legume cereal crops like maize.

“The grant will allow us to embark on a new program of research to identify microbes that can work with non-legume staple crops such as maize, millets, sorghum and cassava,” says Dr. Bruce Knight, co-founder and managing director of Legume Technology.

As part of the project, Legume Technology will work with research institutes, specialist microbe ‘banks’, innovation centres and universities around the world to collect and assess 50 BNF bacterial strains that are already known to have nitrogen-fixation effects.

The University of Nottingham, Legume Technology’s long-time research partner, will screen these strains in high-tech testing chambers that use ‘marked’ nitrogen to identify the best-performing strains and understand their potential. The top 10 strains will then be independently reviewed by the James Hutton Institute. Legume Technology will also partner with the Centre for Process Innovation, a government-funded ‘innovation catalyst’ that helps companies develop biotechnology products.

Field-scale trials will follow, to validate the laboratory findings and to check that the microbes perform as expected.

“There’s lack of awareness around the existence of these biofertilizer products, and that they work,” says Knight. “The project includes in-country commercialization trials to validate the product, demonstrate its reliability and show the gross benefits of yield and quality. We can then investigate logistics and registrations, with a view to developing commercial partnerships.”

The grant will also enable the design, build and installation of a new packaging line for SSP products at Legume Technology’s factory in East Bridgford.

Legume Technology, based in Nottinghamshire, has been working on microbial biofertilizers for more than 20 years. It will receive £2.15m from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for the project.