Grainswest - Fall 2026

Fall 2026 grainswest.com 35 bioreactors, which usually contain various starter components, often yeast extract. Products eventually sold to farmers would most likely be in liquid or powder format. With the study of dry bean, which includes kidney bean, navy bean and others, diCenzo hopes one day they can be successfully grown without the use of fertilizer and rely solely on bio-inoculants. He said it’s worked for soybeans, so, why not dry beans? “It’s still early enough on that I don’t want to say we are going to reach that point, but I think we have a lot of promising results that suggest we could get there.” The other crops being studied, namely barley, canola and wheat, are incapable of interacting with rhizobia and will never be grown completely without synthetic fertilizer. While bio-inoculants containing other types of bacteria have the potential to support the health of these crops, they are not as effective as rhizobia are with legumes. “We had hoped we’d get to a 10 to 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer use on those crops depending how effective these other bio-inoculants are,” he said. “I definitely don’t see synthetic fertilizers going away, but I see these other bio-inoculants as a tool that could either help reduce the use of fertilizers to some extent or that gets used on top of synthetic fertilizers to increase yields, further reducing the emissions and cost per tonne of crop that’s produced.” Another principal investigator is Ivan Oresnik. A researcher at the University of Manitoba who has spent most of his 40-plus year career working with rhizobium, he knows the work being done through BENEFIT has promise. He also admitted the use of biologicals is a problem the world over because there is no globally accepted standard use of practice. “It’s harder to get biologicals into the field in Canada based on how the CFIA works, but in the States, it’s almost every person for themselves,” he explained. “There are a lot of products that come out, they don’t work, and then if people start using them and they don’t work, then it sort of gets to be an issue. Why would I buy something if it’s not working right?” He believes the development of biological products is more important than ever, especially because fertilizer prices have remained sky-high since Russia invaded Ukraine. With continued maritime tension in the Strait of Hormuz, there appears to be no dip in prices for the foreseeable future. “The whole idea behind BENEFIT was, ‘Can we increase nutrient use efficiency?’” he said. Oresnik believes it’s possible that within five years inoculants currently in development could be commercially available to farmers. Oresnik had previously been involved with a soybean trial that involved zero nitrogen and the plants were “just fine.” He understands that it’s a tough sell to say “don’t fertilize it” to a farmer when their livelihood is on the line. Still, he is optimistic, and the BENEFIT project may truly live up to its name. “Even in the last couple of years a lot has been happening in this space with developments and where the state of research is. We moved very rapidly.” In Brazil, the use of biologicals has moved very successfully from the lab to the field. Canadian researchers are optimistic similar progress can be made in this country.