The Novo Nordisk Foundation grants US$21.1M to CIMMYT for sustainable wheat innovation

06 Jun 2024 --- The CropSustaiN initiative by the Mexican International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been granted US$21.1 million by the Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation to develop new wheat varieties that can reduce the nitrogen footprint of the agriculture industry by reducing reliance on fertilizers. The move will also reduce public health risks and facilitate food security.

“Success in this initiative could lead to a major shift in agricultural practices globally, benefiting both the planet and farmers’ livelihoods,” says Claus Felby, senior vice president of biotech at the Novo Nordisk Foundation. “In addition to using less fertilizer, the farmer’s cost will be minimal because all the components are already in the seed.”

“This initiative could, potentially, be extended from wheat cultivation to include other staple crops like maize and rice.”

The research initiative sets out to develop breakthrough technology by learning from nature—biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT, asserts: “BNI could be a part of how we revolutionize nitrogen management in agriculture.”

“It represents a genetic mitigation strategy that not only complements existing methods but also has the potential to decrease the need for synthetic fertilizers substantially,” he explains. “The mitigation potential of better nitrogen fertilizer management could be as impactful for the Global South as the Green Revolution.

Gene-editing
BNI is a seed-based genetic strategy that leverages the plant’s ability to suppress soil nitrification through the release of natural compounds, which could curb the use and latching of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. 

BNI is a seed-based genetic strategy that leverages the plant’s ability to suppress soil nitrification through the release of natural compounds.Over-reliance on nitrogen fertilizers can pose a threat to various aspects of human health, as well as being a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and water population. However, there are fears that reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers could  exacerbate food security issues by compromising wheat yields or by compromising solid vitality. 

The BNI aims to target both of these problematic aspects by offering scalable and cost-effective solutions with the potential to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers by up to 20%, depending on the region and the farming conditions it offers. 

Project scaling
With CropSustaiN, CIMMYT aims to create new climate-resistant wheat varieties through the conventional breeding of wild crops relative to wheat, such as wild rye, which is inherently more efficient at using nitrogen. The final products will be made available to CIMMYT’s international network of partners.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation aims to ensure the new seeds will be accessible to all farmers without exclusive patent rights. 

The broader goal of the initiative is to integrate BNI use across diverse climates and into mainstream agricultural protocols.

CropSustaiN builds upon joint research THE CIMMYT  conducted alongside the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, which started in 2015 and yielded BNI wheat lines that have already been tested over three farming seasons. These crops are now ready for worldwide scaling. 

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is already funding BNI-related research at CIMMYT, the Danish Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen, and at the University of Aberdeen, UK.

Recently, British Sugar told us that it intends to address concerns about the use of fertilizers, potentially harmful to human health, in its sugar beet farming practices by collaborating with the UK government, scientists and private industry to develop new varieties of disease-resistant crops through gene-editing. 

By Milana Nikolova