Celaya, Gto., April 29, 2019.- Dr. Blanca Estela Gómez Luna, professor of the Celaya-Salvatierra Campus, performs research on the use of biofertilizers in agricultural production and sustainability.

As part of an article published in a state circulation media, Dr. Blanca Estela comments on the limitations faced by human beings in their struggle to ensure food for all and their need to make the methods of acquisition more efficient. of products of plant origin.

Among these limitations she highlights the climatic conditions, type of land, geographical region and extension of territory for production and adds as in the seventies it was thought that the application of fertilizers and agrochemical products was the solution to the declining demand for food that even came to call "the Green Revolution". As time passes, it has been observed that the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals has consequences of accumulation of these in the environment polluting food and causing health risk, she says.

According to the specialist, currently, in addition to having as a goal a higher yield in plant production as food source and cost reduction, we also want to achieve an improvement in the quality of the product as: longer shelf life; uniform size; a higher gloss (e.g. in tomatoes); nutrient content and the content of nutraceutical compounds such as lycopene with antioxidant activity, anthocyanins, flavonoids and B-carotenes, among other characteristics.

She details how in the search for friendlier alternatives with the environment and with the human health, the application of biofertilizers has been used to supplement or complement the use of mineral fertilizers. Biofertilizers consist of one or more microorganisms or products thereof, which, in one way or another, provide or improve the availability of nutrients when applied to plant production of food-and forestry-relevant plants.

Microorganisms have been found in the soil, including bacteria promoting plant growth. Two mechanisms have been described whereby plant-growth promoting bacteria provide a benefit; among the properties that the bacteria provide directly are: nitrogen fixation, solubilization of phosphorus, production of phytohormones as they are: auxins, gibberellins, indole acetic acid, she points out.

On the other hand, the benefits that this group of bacteria provides to plants indirectly by the production of compounds that may be antibiotics, siderophores, and others, which act on other microorganisms that can cause diseases in the plants.

Professor Blanca Estela Gómez is a professor at the Celaya-Salvatierra Campus of the University of Guanajuato and is dedicated to research on soils and the use of fertilizers in traditional agricultural practices and their relationship with productivity and ecosystem equilibrium.