Microbial Agribiotech Products Support Sustainable Farming Practice

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). U.S. census bureau statistics estimate that the world's population will top the 6.2 billion mark this month. By 2025, the figure will have risen to 7.8 billion people, and world food production will have doubled in order to support the population. Sustainable farming practice has become a priority consideration and has put the focus on substitutes for chemical fertilizers that can protect the environment and enhance crop yields at the same time.

In traditional fertilizers, the amount of nutrients is fixed and not matched to plant needs. As plants cannot take up excessive NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium), the excess acidifies the soil jeopardizing the ecological balance and leading to infertility. Bio-diversity in water resources is unbalanced by excess chemicals leaching into rivers. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5 to 7 million hectares of agricultural land are lost to accelerating land degradation and rapid urbanization each year. A sixth of the world's land area (nearly 2 billion hectares) is now degraded with chemical fertilizers considered to be one of the major sources of pollution.

The Natural Heritage Trust, established by the Australian Federal Government, has spent four years conducting a $15 million National Land and Water Resources Audit, which confirmed the drastic effects of leaching and acidification. The effects have also contaminated national treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef. This has had the effect of bringing interested agricultural and environmental groups together to promote sustainable farming and implement practical measures.

The Australian fertilizer market takes $1 billion out of the annual global market of $40 billion and this has caught the interest of CK Life Sciences, a Cheun Kong (Hke:0001) (Hong Kong) company, as a compatible market for its NutriSmart eco-fertilizer, which provides a 'smart' phased interaction with root systems.

CK Life Sciences has also been working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Olds College Centre for Innovation (Olds, Alberta) to develop second-generation products, based on their microbial platform, and develop product manufacturing ability in Alberta, Canada. Field trials have been held with the South Australia Development Institute (SARDI) to demonstrate the non-GMO microbial-based product's environmental friendliness and increased crop yields.

The market for agricultural biotechnology products is expected to grow from a $3 billion base in 2000 to $5-8 billion in 2005 and up to $25 billion by 2010. LSBC (Large Scale Biology Corporation (Nasdaq:LSBC) (Vacaville, California) reports that since the first products of modern agricultural biotechnology were introduced in 1996 they have grown to represent approximately 100 million acres of total worldwide plantings in 2000.

They see the next generation of agricultural biotechnology focusing on output traits, which will include crops with increased yield, and improved quality traits such as protein, oil, fatty acid, and amino content. Traits such as cold tolerance, salt and drought tolerance, water stress resistance, and dwarfing will follow shortly after. Ultimately, many agribio products will be centered on output traits applied to the production of commodity chemical intermediates, pharmaceuticals, and specialty fine chemical applications including nutraceuticals and other human and animal nutritional supplements, which LSBC and CK Life Sciences already have in their sights. Environmental and climate change come on, maybe we'll be ready for you...just.