Promise II is a 5-year project coordinated by NIOO-KNAW and funded for two 5-year periods by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project aims to engineer soil and plant microbiomes to minimize yield losses caused by Striga.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, many farmers face challenges accessing affordable resources to protect crops against pests and diseases, and ensuring stable crop yields for food, feed and fiber. While natural resources and fertile soils are becoming scarcer every day, feeding a growing global population will require novel and sustainable strategies to increase agricultural production. Nature offers potential allies that can help us enhance food production with less fertilizers and harmful pesticides. These partners are beneficial microbes. All life depends on them to provide many essential ecosystem services. How exactly can these microbial partners help?
The aim of Promise II is to engineer soil and plant microbiomes to enhance crop productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, it will explore and harness the functional potential of soil- and plant-associated microbes (bacteria and fungi) to minimize yield losses caused by Striga.
Partners in Promise 2 are: NIOO-KNAW, University of Amsterdam, Westerdijk Institute, Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, University of Greenwich, University of California Davis, DCM, Koppert.
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