Last week COP27 made history by dedicating an entire day, November 12, to agriculture for the very first time.
That same day Pivot Bio, agriculture’s leading nitrogen innovator, joined the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) as an Innovation Sprint Partner. The company has committed at least $291 million in product development funding over four years to accelerate the adoption of climate-resilient microbial nitrogen fertilizers.
According to the UNCCC, the total emissions associated with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer are approximately 9 units of CO2eq for every unit of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer produced. Approximately one-third of those emissions are caused by the Haber-Bosch manufacturing process. Replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with nitrogen-producing microbes avoids these emissions and has the potential to reduce water use and improve human health outcomes by reducing ozone depletion and particulate generation.
Pivot Bio introduced the world’s first nitrogen-producing microbes to U.S. farmers in 2018. Since then, they have introduced several nitrogen products for wheat, sorghum and other small grains in addition to its flagship product for corn. Farmers have quickly converted their nitrogen management programs to include Pivot Bio’s microbes while reducing their dependence on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. “Farmers are the foundation of the world’s food system and humanity’s greatest stewards of our land” said Karsten Temme, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Pivot Bio. “Pivot Bio is committed to partnering with them to provide better nitrogen while helping to heal the planet.”
Over the next four years, Pivot Bio will continue to improve the nitrogen replacement capacity and expand into new geographic markets with the goal of helping more of the world’s farmers nourish their crops with the most climate-friendly and easy-to-use nitrogen on the market.
“Microbial nitrogen fertilizer has the potential to permanently and immediately deliver reductions in GHG emissions, while delivering co-benefits to watershed health, biodiversity, and farmer margins,” says Temme, “This could be one of the most important technologies for accelerating progress against the world’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.”
“As an AIM for Climate Innovation Sprint Partner, we will bring together the best minds and ideas to accelerate our pace of product development and increase farmer access to a dependable and sustainable nitrogen,” said Temme. “We are working toward a world where microbial nitrogen is the main source of crop nutrition.”
