Scientists from Bulgaria, France, Italy, South Africa, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Ethiopia visited CPSBB for the Second Annual Meeting for the BOOSTER project. The three-day event (05-07 June 2024) was organized and hosted by CPSBB in the scientific complex of the Center in Plovdiv.
The BOOSTER project is a 4-year scientific research dedicated to boosting drought tolerance in key cereals (both maize and teff) and meeting the challenges of climate change. The scientists involved in this international project exploit natural genetic variations in order to achieve drought-tolerant genotypes of these key cereal crops. They also harness natural resources and apply biostimulants derived from seaweed extracts (SWEs) and microbial biostimulants composed of soil microorganisms growing in and around plant roots with the main objective of developing new varieties of drought-tolerant agricultural crops.
During the meeting, each consortium member presented the scientific research which was held during the first year of the project. Dr. Aakansha Kanojia reported the scientific work that has been done so far at CPSBB, as well as preliminary results from the research analysis. The activities include the greenhouse transplanting of several genotypes of maize plants, seed production, and testing tailor-made SWEs on maize plants under drought conditions (seed coating and leaf priming) for mitigating drought stress.
Future research plans at CPSBB include analyzing the mode of action of SWEs through transcriptome and metabolomic analysis of leaf samples for a selected number of maize seaweed extracts. The best-performing SWEs biostimulants for maize will undergo additional validation through field trials.
So far, the large-scale project has been presented in Bulgaria to various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, the Ministry of Science and Education, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Acad. Prof. Dr. Nikolay Denkov (2023-2024), academic institutions, and universities.
