The Company

Laboratorios Biagro S.A. was established in 1984, when a group of scientists and businessmen joined their efforts to produce: enzymes, plant growth promoting microorganism, including legume inoculants, and other products for integrated pest management.

The company is focused on research and development of high quality products to be competitive in the international markets, and taking into consideration the farmers requirements.

Legume inoculants are the main products of Biagro. Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth and seed production. Frequently the amount of nitrogen in agricultural soils had been depleted as a consequence of agricultural activities. To ameliorate this inconvenient in intensive agriculture, the use of chemical N-fertilizers (usually expensive) is very common, and in fields cultured with legumes the application of rhizobial inoculants.

What are the rhizobia present in the inoculants? What do they do?

Under natural conditions, rhizobia are bacteria with ability to associate with the root of legumes to develop a mutually convenient relationship (a symbiosis, a "friendship"). During the association the plant will provide carbon and other nutrients to the rhizobia while the rhizobia will otherwise provide nitrogen to the plant. The system is natural, and environmentally sound. Once the rhizobia penetrate the plant root they develop root nodules. The nodules are the place where rhizobia actually take-up nitrogen from the air and fix it into an usable chemical form for the plant. This process is called Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation. Thus, nitrogen is taken from the atmosphere (N2, a gas) and is incorporated by rhizobia into the plant (fixed nitrogen). The more nitrogen is fixed from the atmosphere, the less is taken by the plant from your soil.

Why should rhizobia be applied to legume seeds through the use of inoculants?

Rhizobia are present in many soils since they are natural members of the soil microbial community. However, not all soils contain efficient rhizobia in adequate numbers to establish an optimal association with your legume culture. In many cases legume seeds have to be inoculated before sowing in order to assure that an adequate number of high-quality rhizobia will be available to the plant root.

Intensive agriculture may cause serious changes in the quality and quantity of soil microorganisms, including rhizobia. In several situations native rhizobia present in soils are poorly efficient, so getting nutrients from the plant legume without a significant Nitrogen Fixation in return. Biagro's Research and Development Department is focused on the developments of new inoculant products that could help you to improve, when necessary, the availability and quality of rhizobial symbionts in agricultural soils.

Why Biagro inoculants?

The well-known quality of Biagro's products is the result of an integrated technical work that includes the joint efforts of many professionals from our own staff, and from several Research Centers and Universities in different Countries.

The inoculant for soybean is the main product of Biagro.

Electron microscopy photograph of Bradyrhizobium

The inoculant formulation has been extensively evaluated and is based on the use of efficient strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum, the soybean rhizobia. Biagro Inoculants only incorporate rhizobial strains previously recommended by local or recognized Research Centers. At present we use the strains USDA138 and 532 C for the USA and Canada, respectively. Strains used for the production of Nodulest 10 are routinely controlled by modern microbiological techniques. Genotypic characteristics of the inoculant rhizobia are periodically evaluated by DNA fingerprinting methods.

Several other strains are under evaluation in different experimental centers around the world. Biagro S.A. is actively engaged in the search and selection of efficient rhizobial genotypes to be used under sub optimal soil and climatic conditions (i.e. acidity, high environmental temperatures).