SYMBIOLEG

Despite growing demand from farmers and consumers, applied research efforts remain very modest, given the still modest size of the pulse seed market. In order to secure production and ensure optimal nitrogen fixation for the various pulse species, it seems essential to work on the production of specific inocula, adapted and directly applied to seeds, to facilitate their use by farmers. However, to date in France, there is no inoculum used routinely with proven efficacy in chickpea, lentil or dry bean.

The development of rhizobium inoculum would undoubtedly enable us to increase the area under legume production, and thus move towards national production autonomy and meet consumer needs, particularly for local products.

The overall aim of the project is to develop rhizobium coatings specific to each species, adapted to French growing basins and also suitable for use in organic farming.

• Characterization of efficient rhizobium strains per legume species in different production basins in France
• Production of 3 efficient rhizobium strains per species to enable production testing of these strains.
• Development of an industrial rhizobium coating recipe for each species
• Coating chickpea, lentil and dry bean varieties with the selected inocula to enable them to be marketed in France, after obtaining marketing authorization.