Book chapter presented: Próxima Geração de Quitosanas como potenciais biofertilizantes – Next Generation of Chitosans as Potential Biostimulants

This summer has been exceedingly hot in Paraná, one of the Southern states in Brazil. Temperatures passed the mark of 40°C, and much of the crop in this most important agricultural area of Brazil dried up in the fields. This is the dramatic background to today’s book presentation on “Aminoácidos, extratos de algas, extratos vegetais e substȃncias húmicas como: Biofertilizantes” (“Amino Acids, Algal Extracts, Plant Extracts, and Humic Substances as: Biostimulants”) to the Brazilian public. Almost 150 participants, particularly from agro-industry and distributors of agro-chemicals and agro-biologics, followed the online presentation of the four main chapters of the book. Prof. Atila Mógor, who developed the first biofertilizer registered in Brazil, and his wife, Gilda Mógor, had served as editors of the book which was printed by Abisolo (Brazilian Industries Association of Technology in Plant Nutrition). He had asked our alumna Prof. Roberta Paulert to contribute a chapter on plant extracts which can be used as plant biofertilizers. Roberta convinced Prof. Mógor to add small chapters on Emerging Future Biofertilizers, including one on chitosans. Roberta compiled this chapter together with Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher, with contributions from our alumnae Dr. Anne Vortkamp, Dr. Maha Attjioui, and Dr. Rebecca Melcher as well as our post-doctoral researchers Dr. Naivy Nava and Dr. Carolin Richter. We also included, posthumously, our colleague Dr. Nour Eddine El Gueddari who had been the driving force behind our applied work on advanced chitosans in agriculture for many years. Biofertilizers (called biostimulants in Europe) stimulate plant growth and development by improving plant nutrient and water use efficiency and by increasing their abiotic stress tolerance. In times of climate change with hotter and drier summers and deteriorating soil health due to excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, such agro-biologics can be game-changing. And this is beginning to be realized increasingly by agro-industry, too. Together with Roberta and her colleagues at the University of Paraná, we are working towards making chitosans key players in this urgent transition to a more sustainable agriculture - to secure healthy crops on heahtly soils for healthy food, even in the face of climate change.