BIOFI
Finger millet and pigeon pea are widely grown in India, particularly by marginal farmers. BIOFI aims to optimize such rainfed mixed-culture schemes using bio-irrigation and bio-fertilization (boosting yields, improving nutritional quality).
Steckbrief
- Beteiligte Departemente Hochschule für Agrar-, Forst- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften
 - Institut(e) Agronomie
 - Forschungseinheit(en) Internationale Landwirtschaft und ländliche Entwicklung
 - Förderorganisation Andere
 - Laufzeit 01.05.2014 - 31.12.2017
 - Projektleitung Dr. Dominic Blättler
 - 
            Projektmitarbeitende
                    
                        Prof. Dr. Urs Christoph Scheidegger
                    
                
Dr. Dominic Blättler
Pia Clara Fehle - 
            Partner
                    Pondicherry University
                
Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FibL
Bharathiar University
Small Millets, GKVK Bangalore
ICRISAT
Institute of Botany, Uni Basel
ISCB Indo-Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology
MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, India - Schlüsselwörter India, pigeon pea, finger millet, intercropping system, bio-irrigation, bio-fertilization
 
Ausgangslage
The aim of the project BIOFI is the development and implementation of an environmentally, economically and socially improved finger millet and pigeon pea intercropping system for arid/semi-arid zones, using bio-inoculants and bio-irrigation
Vorgehen
BIOFI combines biotechnology and socio-economic research. Biotech uses arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) as "biofertilizers" central to the hydraulic lift ("bioirrigation"). Socio-economic groups aim to better understand local farming and seed systems, intercropping patterns, farmers’ decision making and the bio-inputs market (incl. "eco-enterprises"). Ecological and economic assessment of biofertilizer production/application.