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Nano-enabled biostimulant for sustainable agriculture: optimizing scale-up parameters through genomic approaches for commercialization

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Generating solutions

Status

Active

Competition

Genomic Applications Partnership Program

Genome Centre(s)

GE3LS

Yes

Project Leader(s)

Fiscal Year Project Launched

2023-2024

Project Description

Feeding an estimated global population of 9.1 billion people in 2050 requires raising overall food production by 70 per cent between 2005/07 and 2050. The increasing global demand for food forces the agriculture sector to heavily use fertilizers and pesticides for increasing crop protection and productivity. Since this use is unsustainable and irreparably damages the environment and humans, there is a demand for developing cost-efficient, high-performing and eco-friendly biostimulants. Worth around US$393M in 2020, the North American biostimulant market is estimated to be growing annually by 11.29 per cent and will surpass US$4B by 2025. This project will use -omics technologies to lower manufacturing costs and drive commercialization of BioSun’s innovative biostimulant, based on newly identified biologically active compounds (lipopeptides) from Bacillus velenzensis strain OB9 encapsulated in halloysite nanoclay (nOB9). When tested in yellow beans and tomatoes, the Canadian-made biostimulant prototype showed improved productivity under field conditions. The aim is to introduce this new product to the Canadian market, starting with Québec and Ontario, ultimately helping to lower Canada’s carbon footprint and increasing its share of global agri-markets.

 

 

Dr. Jamil Samsatly, Ph. D. (left) and Dr. Hacene Meglouli, Ph. D. (right).
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