Microbes and Food Security at USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture

The world is facing a food shortage that will intensify in the next several decades as the global population increases.  In addition to the obvious toll and enormous impact on human health and longevity, food shortages fuel political instability and undermine global stability. A strategic goal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to “help America promote agricultural production and biotechnology exports as America works to increase food security.”  The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is the major extramural research funding agency of USDA.  NIFA is addressing USDA’s goal by supporting research, education and extension (outreach) in the agricultural sciences.  By advancing science-based solutions in promoting sustainable agricultural systems, NIFA is addressing the challenges of food insecurity in both developed and developing countries world-wide. 

Production of agricultural plants and animals is greatly influenced by the microorganisms associated with them.  Over the last decade, genomics has revolutionized our understanding of the interactions between microorganisms, their hosts and the physical environment.  It has given scientists new tools to investigate the important influences, both positive and negative, that microbes and microbial communities have on the productivity of agricultural plants and animals.  Examples of plant systems in which microbes positively influence plant productivity include 1) the fungal endophytes that confer increased fitness and stress tolerance to the grasses that they colonize and 2) the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that colonize nursery crops, helping their plant hosts suppress disease and become more drought and salinity tolerant.   One example of beneficial microorganisms in animal systems is microbial probiotics that increase livestock productivity under certain circumstances.  Research is currently underway to manipulate gastrointestinal microbiota in ruminants and non-ruminant livestock to enable more efficient use of cellulose or nutrients in their diet.  

Genomics has also allowed scientists to better conceptualize the complexity of the interactions between the microorganisms within microbial communities.  Investments are needed in both basic and applied research to 1) better understand the mechanisms by which microbial communities influence plant and animal productivity and 2) use our new knowledge to increase agricultural productivity by manipulating microbial communities.  A microbe-mediated increase in global food security would be an outcome well worth the investment.