Groundwork BioAg
Groundwork BioAg produces mycorrhizal inoculants for the global commercial agriculture market. Based on naturally robust strains of mycorrhizal fungi, their inoculants offer broad benefits for mainstream and regenerative agriculture. By boosting crop yields and soil fertility, improving plant nutrient uptake and resistance to stress, and reducing fertilizer requirements, Groundwork BioAg’s mycorrhizal inoculants regenerate agricultural soil while permanently sequestering carbon.
About Us
Intensified agricultural production methods and chemical applications have led to the degradation and depletion of soil microbiota and account for a significant fraction of global GHG emissions. The global food system is facing multiple challenges around the need to increase crop yields while simultaneously reducing chemical inputs, enhancing soil health, and sequestering carbon.
Relevant Challenges
Soil Fertility
Estimated to sequester up to 13.12 Gt of CO2eq annually, the rise of fungal-plant relationships over 475 million years ago corresponded “with a 90% reduction in atmospheric CO2 levels”. However, modern agriculture has destroyed much of the microbial soil matrix, eliminating mycorrhizae, depleting the soils of carbon, and releasing 785 GtCO2eq into the atmosphere in the process. Mycorrhizal inoculation, the most effective method of restoring microbial communities into agricultural ecosystems, promises to permanently draw down that carbon back where it belongs – in our soil. In addition to supercharging carbon sequestration, mycorrhizae improve plant nutrient uptake (particularly phosphorus), enhance water absorption and resistance to drought, and boost crop productivity.
Reduce Land Footprint
Modern agricultural methods, such as tilling, fumigation, cut-and-fill leveling, and sterilization, exterminate mycorrhizae along with the target pathogens. Reintroduction of mycorrhizae in soil revives the soil’s ability to retain precious nutrients and plants’ ability to absorb them. Plants growing in mycorrhizae-rich soil demonstrate multiple benefits, including: Enhanced yield due to increased nutrient and water uptake; Reduced need for fertilizer, notably up to 50% of phosphorus; Improved resistance to stress; and permanent and significant carbon sequestration.
Reduce Inputs
As the center of the rhizosphere, mycorrhizal networks collectively form a BioPlatform that enables diverse microbial soil communities to thrive. A range of soil microbes – particularly synergistic Mycorrhizae Helper Bacteria (MHB) – utilize mycorrhizal pathways to coexist and cooperate, offering a beneficial environment for plants and other organisms through multiple ecosystem services. These include: enhanced soil carbon sequestration, nitrogen fixation bacteria, bio-control benefits against soil-borne and weather-related stressors, and increased phosphorus solubilization which allows for reduction of inputs.
