Abstract :

The threatens to agriculture soils from the Estarreja and Baixo Vouga Lagunar (BVL) regions include the combination of several anthropogenic and environmental factors, such as industrial pollution, intensive farming practices, overuse of fertilizers, the use of contaminated groundwater for irrigation, and salinization due to surface saltwater intrusion. For instance, these factors contributed to land degradation and therefore to crop productivity and safety decreasing. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in these regions and boosting maize production in affected soils can have a significant socio-economic impact. Thus, the need of sustainable and eco-friendly solutions to improve productivity is one of the major challenges of agriculture activity in these regions. Estarreja and BVL may also be living labs, providing experience to other sites, where these approaches may be transferred. Several studies have demonstrated that inoculation with indigenous rhizobacteria can enhance plant performance and growth. Driven by described issues and based on knowledges acquired from our previous OHM projects (e.g: SoilGenomic, 2016; NotillAgri-Estarreja, 2017; Nameless, 2017; SoilSalt, 2017; SoilRice, 2018), this proposal aims to explore the potential of a consortium of indigenous plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPB) that are resistant to metal(loids) present in those soils, as well as PGPB well adapted to high levels of salinity and re-applied them to reduce problems associated with stressful environments via ex-situ bioinoculation of new seeds (before sowing) and in-situ bioinoculation of new plantlets. Accordingly, this may contribute to minimizing impacts on crops productivity and assure more sustainable agriculture practices.