In August, the Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office awarded a $2.83 million grant to Legume Technology, a British biotech company. According to AgFunderNews, with the increased funding, the company hopes to offer farmers in Africa a safe, affordable method of improving soil fertility and crop health.
Over the years, the overall soil fertility in Africa has worsened, largely due to the overuse of chemical fertilizers, which have increased acidification.
To combat that problem, Legume Technology has spent the last two decades developing bacterial and fungal microbial biofertilizers that can capture nitrogen from the air and keep it in the dirt for the crops to suck up — essentially creating natural alternatives to chemical fertilizers.
Part of the company’s new initiative is to overhaul its packaging, creating smaller packages of biofertilizers for more…
