Products & Services
Endophyte Discovery
CropBiome has developed a unique discovery platform to recover and isolate beneficial endophytes from wild plant species for application to commercial crops. Our long term plan is to generate, test and commercialize a variety of innovative microbial products for crops generated through our unique approach.
Testing
We test our products in-vitro and in the field and then with accredited agriculture industry agencies that further validate products in the field, gathering the required supporting data for market readiness and regulatory registration.
In parallel we also work with commercial partners seeking to integrate biological products into their portfolios to reduce reliance on agrichemicals as aligned with sustainability policy and targets. These commercial partners have established embedded networks to bring products to market, enabling Cropbiome to focus on biological product development, testing and validation.
Seed Coatings
We have developed fungal endophytic inoculants (crop specific seed coatings) which act as bio-stimulants to improve crop health, resilience to disease, improve drought tolerance and help the plant absorb nutrients more efficiently. The inoculants are applied as a thin film seed dressing in standard seed coating equipment.
These act to promote growth and reduce abiotic stresses and biotic stresses. Products for wheat and barley are closest to commercialisation and have been tested in the field in different regions. These products WheatBio & BarleyBio will offer farmers an alternative to synthetic chemical seed dressings, at the same or lower price point as commercial chemical seed coating products.
The coatings are applied in the standard way but they have the added benefits of:
- Increasing production efficiencies under low nutrient conditions
- Reducing nitrogen fertiliser use
- Improving plant health and resilience under disease and drought pressure
- Reducing crop loss from disease pressure closer to harvest, increasing food security
Soil Health Indicators
We are developing our unique microbial soil health indicator technology which will provide the farmer with critical statistics about the microbial status of soils and provide advice on how to optimize it for maximum yields with increased production efficiencies helping lower chemical inputs.
Products Performance
CropBiome have a large cryptopreserved collection of endophytes isolated from crop wild relatives and a proven pipeline of discovery.
We have characterised the collections with DNA sequencing and phenotypic assessments for crop performance. We have developed a pipeline for maximum utilization of the Biobank and for fermentation of the most promising formulations.
Developing and formulating biological products
CropBiomes core areas of expertise are in developing biological products from Endophytes (fungal, bacterial and metabolites) Delivering formulated:
- Seed coating biostimulants reducing biotic & abiotic stress.
- Targeted foliar applications for disease control
Foliar applications
Based on the significant biotic stress reduction of our cereal seed coatings in field trials, we have been developing formulations as biofungicides for use as targeted foliar sprays to apply to the foliage for disease control at times of increased disease pressure closer to harvest. Early indications from field trials highlight significant reductions when tested as a foliar spray showing reduced severity in Fusarium Head Blight and Septoria in Winter wheat and reduced severity of Ramularia in Spring barley.
