Salt-Tolerant Bacteria Boost Crop Yields

Researchers from the National University of Uzbekistan have found that salt-tolerant bacteria boost crop yielding.

The research was led by microbiologist Dilfuza Egamberdieva. This salt- tolerant bacteria can help in boosting the growth of economically crucial crops like wheat, tomato, cucumber and cotton on degraded land with high salt content.

Above 2.6 billion people depend on agriculture globally and about 52 percent of the land used for agriculture faces soil degradation over a period of time. This degradation occurs due to penetration of salt from the ground to the root of the plants, which hampers nodulation. This in turn hinders the nitrogen fixation that takes place at the root of the plant and restricts its growth.

About 4.4 million hectares of land used for harvesting in Uzbekistan, declined in yield capability, caused by the presence of surplus saline content in the Aral Sea basin surrounding the country.

Egamberdieva has been studying soil bacteria or more than a decade; she found that the growth of these bacteria gets restricted in salty soils and also hampers the plant growth.

"We found that bacteria from the Pseudomonas family, in particular Pseudomonas extremorientalis, are salt-resistant and grow close to the roots, where they compete with other bacteria for colonization. On the contrary, pathogenic bacteria cannot actively colonize the plants' roots," Egamberdieva stated in a press release.

"Here, Pseudomonas produce antibiotics that plants use to defend themselves against fungi, trigger the rooting process and produce nodulation-promoting factors, thus giving the vegetation better chances to fix nitrogen and grow bigger," she added.

These bacteria feed on exudates, which the plants release. She found these bacteria increase the harvest of crops in soil with scarce salt levels by around 10 to 15 percent. She came up with a patented technique to separate the strains of these bacteria from the soil.

"We have already completed some experiments, both in protected greenhouses and in open fields, working in close contact with local farmers", said Egamberdieva, who is also engaged in promotion campaigns with the government and in outreach programs among farmers. "Crops treated with the "bacterial fertilizers" give yields 12-15 % higher than normal, when bacteria are administered to tomatoes and cucumber".

She aims at performing the experiment in real fields and find a better way to help farmers in yielding better crops. Her work was awarded  $15,000 at the TWAS's 24th General Meeting in Buenos Aires. TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) is an organisation found by Abdus Salam, a Pakistani physicist, with headquarters in Trieste, Italy.