CJ BIO, leading microbial and botanical biostimulants provider with more than 60 years of experience in R&D

CJ BIO is the biotechnology and solution business unit of CJ CheilJedang, a leading food and bio-material company in South Korea. Made only with very pure L-type free amino acids based on microbes and plant-based materials, CJ BIO’s amino acids offer exceptional efficiency in supplying nutrients, with a wide-ranging portfolio of differentiated products and solutions for the livestock, food, and agricultural industries.

In particular, CJ BIO focuses on fostering its Plant Nutrition & Health (PNH) business, expanding its strategic partnership in the agricultural industries by leveraging its advanced research and development in bio-based materials and microbes.

With more than 60 years of experience in strain development and fermentation technologies, CJ BIO has successfully delivered microbial products of exceptional efficacy over a short time. Due to CJ BIO’s extensive microbial library and advanced automated systems, such as the robot-arm HTS (High-throughput Screening), specific functions can be efficiently selected. 

These systems have enabled CJ BIO’s team of experts, including fermentation, plant, and biological data scientists, to screen powerful microbes that can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In addition to supporting plant growth in the field, they have developed large-scale fermentation systems and designed stable microbial products with a high cell density. They have also created optimized strains with better performance in the field.

Competitive Edge Backed by Extensive Microbial Library and Automated System for Advanced Microbial Products

The diverse varieties of microbial products developed by the company have proven to be effective in ensuring biological growth and control effects on row crops, such as soybeans and corn, and horticultural crops, such as tomatoes and cucumbers. Currently, large-scale field evaluations are underway with several global research institutes, including Korea.

CJ BIO has successfully identified numerous strains with outstanding control effects on pathogens and major diseases in row crops, such as soybeans, corn, and rice, and horticultural crops, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. 

For example, in greenhouse trials, CJ BIO has confirmed control values ranging from 55% to 75% against major fungal diseases in plants, such as Phytophthora stem rot, Rhizoctonia damping-off, Fusarium wilt, and anthracnose, proving far more effective than 34% of the average efficacy of other commercialized biopesticides.

Recently, field trials were conducted in Korea to test the efficacy of CJ BIO products against several diseases, whose results confirmed outstanding control effects for all the diseases tested. 

Notably, the tested products showed 20%, 24%, and 27% higher control values than other commercial products for tomato gray mold, pepper damping-off, and strawberry Fusarium wilt, respectively. Additionally, these microbial pesticides can be used in combination with chemical pesticides.

In the Southeast Asian region, field trials were conducted to study the control of major diseases affecting row crops, such as rice, and large-scale plantations for plants, such as oil palm. In countries like Indonesia, where the temperature and humidity are high year-round, paddy rice is highly susceptible to bacterial diseases, such as bacterial leaf blight. 

Their studies show that WHITERID^® reduced disease incidences by as much as 10% compared to infected farms and increased yield by 140-290%, depending on the season. If basal stem rot (BSR), caused by Ganoderma boninense, infects oil palm, a major crop in Malaysia, the entire older palm trees must be removed. 

However, in many cases, the infection is difficult to spot due to the vast size of such plantations. GANOSHIELD^® is a microbial pesticide that prevents the spread of Ganoderma, which infects plants through soil, reducing the Ganoderma inoculum number in the soil by as much as 50% and increasing yield by 20%.

L-type Amino Acid-based Biostimulants

CJ BIO’s biostimulants using L-amino acids are an effective alternative to the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides.

In particular, the fertilizer using L-amino acids produced with CJ BIO’s advanced microbial fermentation technology offers differentiated performance. L-amino acids are in their natural form, allowing for rapid absorption and utilization in plant metabolisms. The target function was enabled by combining single L-amino acids rather than mixed amino acids produced by hydrolysis.

Through their research on the molecular mechanisms of 20 amino acids in plants based on transcriptomics technology, CJ BIO created a library of amino acids categorized by their function and deepened its understanding of the synergistic and antagonistic effects of amino acids.

By leveraging its proprietary library, CJ BIO can develop products with diverse functions and achieve the vegetative growth expected from conventional fertilizers. Such functions include better reproductive growth, especially in flowering and fruiting, and improving yields and profits through shortening the harvest period, fruit enlargement, and enhanced coloring.

Lately, the efforts have focused on developing biostimulants based on L-amino acid as a solution to the declining yield, as they can alleviate abiotic stress.

For example, CJ BIO has been at the forefront of research and development for an amino acid-based biostimulant that effectively protects crops from drought stress. In a test conducted on soybeans under harsh conditions, with irrigation reduced to 50% of the conventional level, CJ BIO’s biostimulant demonstrated reduced drought stress and led to soybean yield recovery.

The research on how CJ BIO’s biostimulant relieves drought stress has found increased activation of genes related to overcoming drought stress in plants and those associated with ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) involved in stress response.

Another recent research identified combinations of amino acids significantly affect stress relief in both abnormally high and low-temperature conditions resulting from unexpected climate changes.

When treated with products that use such amino acid combinations, the expressions of genes that handle temperature stress increased in the plants exposed to high and low-temperature stress conditions, resulting in an increase of fresh weight for lettuce by 17-30% compared to the control group.

CJ BIO is also actively researching low-carbon products as part of our commitment to addressing climate change. The organic liquid fertilizers produced during the microbial fermentation process for the amino acid have shown higher absorption efficiency than common chemical fertilizers, resulting in a reduced need for nitrogen fertilizers for the soil. Long-term tests are currently underway at an agricultural university in Korea to assess nitrogen reduction and greenhouse gas emissions, with the effects of carbon reduction from growing corn soon to be confirmed. Additionally, further field trials for carbon reduction are planned for various crops in other countries, such as Indonesia and Brazil.

CJ BIO has achieved remarkable success in the field of inoculants, which have proven to be highly effective in reducing the use of chemical fertilizers. In Brazil, one of the most crucial markets for inoculants, CJ BIO has demonstrated a significant impact of their inoculants on soybean yield. Through our proprietary screening microbial library and optimization of strains and formulation, CJ BIO has enhanced the performance of inoculants for soybean cultivation. Test results showed that soybeans grown with CJ BIO’s product exhibited a 43% increase in root nodule formation and a 14% higher yield than those using other competing products in Brazil.

In addition to Bradyrhizobium for soybeans, CJ BIO is also actively working on developing and commercializing Azospirillum for row crops like soybean, corn, wheat, and rice, intending to introduce these products to the market by 2024.

CJ BIO Is Ready to Support Passionate Partners

CJ BIO is committed to providing innovative forms of agricultural solutions aligned with ongoing ESG trends through partnerships and is ready to fully support passionate partners who are sincere in realizing such innovation and changes.

For more details on potential partnerships with CJ BIO, please send your inquiry to CJ BIO’s official email account (plantnh@cj.net).