Evaluation of innovative microbial carrier products

Peat is the most-used carrier for rhizobia legume inoculants. However, it is a non-renewable resource, and often has low rhizobial survival rate in soil or coated seeds when placed under environmental stresses such as heat or drought.

The previous Soil CRC project ‘Evaluating alternative rhizobial carriers’ assessed 100 potential carriers and identified and developed the best four alternative carrier formulations – mill-mud based, biochar-based, diatomite-based and cow manure-based. These all have higher rhizobial survival rates, nodulation and drought resistance than peat inoculants under laboratory conditions.

These novel rhizobial carrier formulations developed from the laboratory now require large-scale glasshouse and field trials to evaluate their efficiency. The project will look at nitrogen-fixing efficacy, crop yield and environmental impacts.

This project will involve manufacturing of these novel carriers for seed coating and granular products and glasshouse and field experiments to evaluate their efficacy across different soil types, climatic zones and agricultural regions in Australia.