Network’s summary on ISCB Phase IV "Biofertilization and 'bioirrigation' for sustainable mixed cropping of pigeon pea and finger millet (BIOFI)"

The ISCB project "Biofertilization and 'bioirrigation' for sustainable mixed cropping of pigeon pea and finger millet (BIOFI)" was conceived in 2013 and started with much enthusiasm in 2014. Two of the Swiss teams had considerable experience in the ISCB from previous phases, and they strongly welcomed the new approach of the ISCB to focus on the needs of small-holder farms in India and to couple the biotechnological work with socio-economic studies. A new team of eight biotechnology groups (three Swiss, five Indian) and three socio-economic groups (two Swiss, one Indian) was assembled to study the potential of combining "biofertilization" with "bioirrigation". The concept of "biofertilization", i.e the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), had already been tested and verified in previous phases of the ISCB. The novelty was the concept of "bioirrigation". According to this concept, a deep-rooted crop plant would lift water from deep soil layers to "irrigate" a shallow-rooted crop plant in its vicinity, and this would be promoted by biofertilizers, in particular AMF, which are able to interlink neighbouring plants. The two target crops of ISCB phase IV, the deep-rooted pigeon pea and the shallow-rooted finger millet, are ideally suited to test this concept. We proposed to apply biofertilization in the context of an established intercropping technique, in which pigeon pea seedlings are pre-cultivated in "polybags" some weeks before the end of the dry season and then planted into a finger millet field. The "BIOFI package" to be tested included the "polybag" pre-culture of pigeon pea, intercropping with finger millet and biofertilization by AMF and PGPR. On the side of socio-economics, the economic viability and the environmental impact of the "BIOFI package” were assessed, farmers’ current practices were studied and key constraints and opportunities for the adoption of the “BIOFI package” were identified. In addition, biofertilizer production in "eco-enterprises" was established.