Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

A&L Biologicals (A&L), located in London ON, is an innovative, research driven company that serves a wide range of industries including Agriculture, Environmental and Food & Pharma-globally. Within Agriculture, A&L provides comprehensive analytical services for soil, plant tissue, feed, fertilizer, and water. A&L also supports a team that focused its research and development on soil health and products that can support sustainable and regenerative agriculture. This includes crop inputs that can replace conventional fertilizers and pesticides made from non-renewable resources. One category of next generation regenerative agricultural products is based on seed treatment technology whereby crop seeds are coated with plant beneficial microbes. Biological seed treatments are increasingly in demand by farmers. A&L researchers recently published results demonstrating the utility of biological seed treatments in transforming agricultural soil with poor productivity to high productivity. However, technical challenges to biological treatments remain to be assessed, such as development of seed coating formulants that support the ability of the beneficial microbes to colonize and persist in the root zone of crops. A&L Biologicals, in partnership with Lambton's Bio-Industrial Process Research Centre, aims to develop and commercialize new biological seed treatments. Success of this project provide A&L information and techniques critical to their goal of bringing to market new biological seed treatments. It is expected that by the end of the proposed project, A&L will be ready for field trials. In addition, the broader agricultural input industry will also benefit from the increased research, development and commercialization activity in sustainable and regenerative agriculture that bringing this new class of fertility products to market is expected to generate.