Soil Health Group
Inoculants for plant nutrition in the Greater Mekong Region (GMR), ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research)
The project aims to understand the current status of inoculant production, distribution and use in the GMR to confirm or refute anecdotal evidence of a decline in the use, efficacy and production standards of nutrient acquisition enhancing inoculants, particularly, but not limited to rhizobia and micro-rhizosphere inoculants. This project delivers on Deakin and the
faculties strategic intent to engage strongly with Vietnam, through a key Australian funding opportunity in ACIAR.
Capacity Building for Intercropping legumes in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – Agronomy and soil health, legumes and their rhizobia, delivery of rhizobia and mycorrhiza and quality control.
This program developed capacity to assess the microbial quality of commercial inoculants and to distinguish ineffective products from quality inocula in their national markets. The high costs of nitrogenous fertilizers, phosphate and other agricultural inputs in developing countries is driving the development and use of beneficial microbes to enhance crop production. Microbial products are a relatively cheap alternative to fertilizers, and perform very well in different environments (including different crop and soil types). However, there is little information on the actual content of these products, and quality controls are poor. Agricultural microbial inoculant products are being sold in SE Asian countries which have not been certified to be pure cultures (or to have a controlled level of contaminants), assessed for efficacy, or their potential to be human pathogens.