Tecnoshow 2024: Embrapa launches inoculant production quality manual

During the Tecnoshow 2024 fair, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) unveiled the ″Manual for Bioinput Analysis for Agricultural Use: Inoculants,″ with special coverage by AgroPages.

Authored by analyst Eduara Ferreira and researchers Marco Antonio Nogueira and Mariangela Hungria, the manual addresses various aspects of quality control in biological input production. The publication provides detailed content and offers step-by-step methods and analyses with didactic images for evaluating microbial inoculants.

Mariangela Hungria and Marco Nogueira

″Our goal is to provide a reference enriched with illustrations and detailed descriptions of inoculant analysis methods, facilitating the evaluation of the quality of these products,″ explained Hungria and Nogueira.

A survey by the National Association of Inoculant Producers and Importers (ANPII) revealed that Brazil has many opportunities for the adoption and development of inoculants, which are inputs containing microorganisms that are beneficial for agriculture. For example, in the 2022/23 soybean season, inoculants with Bradyrhizobium bacteria were used on 85% of cultivated area, while co-inoculation, or the combined use of Bradyrhizobium and Azospirillum, was used on some 35% of the country’s crop area, highlighting the advancement of this technology.

According to current Brazilian legislation, inoculants are substances containing microorganisms that act favorably on plant development. ″The methods described in the manual standardize inoculant analyses based on current regulations in Brazilian legislation. The contents and illustrations in the manual facilitate the understanding of each stage of an analysis, as several procedures must be rigorously followed,″ Eduara explained. The described methods are nationally and internationally accepted and validated and officially recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (Mapa).

For the manual’s edition, microorganisms recommended or authorized for use in inoculants by Mapa were used, including the genera, Azospirillum, Bradyrhizobium, Bacillus, Mesorhizobium, Priestia, Pseudomonas, and Rhizobium. However, for these products to enhance crop productivity, improve soil quality, and ensure environmental safety, the manual's authors stressed the need to use high-quality bioinputs.

″In the case of inoculants, quality includes the use of microorganisms recognized as efficient by Brazilian research, in adequate concentrations and without contaminants. Quality must be guaranteed from manufacturing to the moment of use by farmers,″ they stressed.

In the authors’ view, the manual presents relevant information for the industry, which must ensure the maintenance of desired properties in developed products. Additionally, the manual can also benefit cooperatives, retailers, and farmers who increasingly seek qualified laboratories to verify the quality of bioinputs. ″We hope that the manual will also contribute to the adequate training of human resources, which can enable the accreditation of new laboratories for inoculant analyses, especially in regions where grain production is concentrated, such as the Midwest,″ the authors stated.

Brazil leads the world in terms of benefitting from the use of bioinputs classified as inoculants to completely or partially replace nitrogenous chemical fertilizers. ″In soybean crops alone, over $25 billion is saved annually by using inoculants with nitrogen-fixing bacteria,″ Mariangela said. ″However, for these benefits to reach the farmer, access to high-quality products containing microorganisms recognized as efficient by Brazilian research, in adequate concentrations and without contaminants, is fundamental,″ she added.

The quality assessments of these products are carried out through scientifically validated analyses recognized by official bodies. ″We value research development with biological inputs as a replacement or complement to chemical inputs,″ said Alexandre Nepomuceno, General Manager of Embrapa Soybean.

″Support for research with biological inputs has led to Embrapa Soybean being recognized as one of the main leaders, both in terms of biological pest and disease control and in the development of technologies related to biological nitrogen fixation and other microbial processes that contribute to plant nutrition and growth,″ Nepomuceno added.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)