Mexican Bacterial Biofertilizer Program of INIFAP

Resumen

In 1998, the considerable reduction in agricultural profitability, as a consequence of the rise in prices of agricultural inputs —particularly chemical fertilizers and pesticides—, prompted the Mexican government to seek production alternatives to reduce the use of agrochemicals in the country. Given the importance of food self-sufficiency and the profitability of national agricultural activity, the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP) of Mexico launched the ‘Programa de Investigación sobre Biofertilizantes’. Since 1999, the initiative has had the uninterrupted support of the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SAGARPA) to generate national technologies for the development and management of biofertilizers and to promote their use among agricultural producers. As a starting point, INIFAP sought to consolidate alliances with some of the Mexican leading research institutions, in order to promote the use of biofertilizers as an alternative to chemical fertilizers. During this first phase, microorganisms —such as Glomus intraradices, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Azospirillum brasilense, and Rhizobium etli— were used to reduce the doses of chemical fertilizers in some of the main domestic staple crops. Given the success of this first phase, INIFAP established mycorrhizal production centers in different regions of the country and then a team of INIFAP scientists from various fields of science was integrated. Initially, this team focused on plant growth-promoting bacteria, as well as on the development and formulation of new and more efficient bacterial biofertilizers, using local strains from the main agro-ecological zones of Mexico. Later on, they focused on technology transfer and the training of Mexican producers to apply and use the products. This review describes some of the main achievements accomplished by the INIFAP Biofertilizer team, particularly in the area of bacterial bioproducts.