Grant: Alliance Grants

Plant-growth promoting microbes have been demonstrated to increase plant nutrient uptake, protect plants against disease, and improve plant resilience against environmental stress, translating into measurable increases in crop productivity while significantly decreasing fertilizerrequirements. Unfortunately, the many benefits associated with plant-growth promoting microbes have failed to translate to indoor agricultural farms because these microbes are not well adapted to soil-less hydroponics-based systems.Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is a variation of indoor farming where the crops aregrown under highly regulated conditions, offering an optimal growing environment for the production of fresh and nutritious foods. The environmental benefits conferred by CEA include higher efficiency of nutrient and water usage, and up to 100-fold more efficient use of space. CEA is an increasingly important sector of the Canadian agricultural landscape, and yet there has been little research to empirically assess the environmental benefits and disadvantages associated with CEA. In this proposal, we will critically assess the greenhouse gas emissions that are associated with CEA farms and identify the factors that drive these emissions, offering recommendations as to how these might be mitigated. Secondly, we will harness the potential of microbial inoculants to enhance plant productivity in farms through the identification and engineering of elite microbial strains, thereby allowing farmers as means of tapping into the benefits of these microbes while reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers.