A Gamechanger for Agriculture – and for Our Climate

The Israeli company Groundwork BioAg has already secured its place at the top of the global agricultural carbon dioxide (CO2) removal market thanks to its proprietary frontier technology that offers low-cost, scalable, and permanent carbon sequestration in agricultural soil. By simply adding a small quantity of Groundwork BioAg's Rootella powder or liquid to the farmer's existing seed treatment protocol, agricultural soil is regenerated within a single crop cycle and large quantities of carbon are permanently sequestered in the soil. Consequently, farms are painlessly transformed from being net carbon emitters to net carbon retainers.

In fact, Rootella helps farmers boost their crop yields while reducing their fertilizer usage and regenerating their soil – without requiring them to change their farming practices in any way. Clear-cut results are obtained in a single season and, just as important, the cost is minimal and is rapidly offset by the benefits. So far, Rootella has been applied to 4.5 million acres (18 million dunams) of commercial crops in 17 different countries, and this number is constantly growing. Farmers are extremely satisfied with their results.

A natural, cost-effective solution

The secret lies in mycorrhizal fungi. These 100% natural fungi grow in symbiosis with plant roots, greatly increasing their absorptive area and providing valuable soil nutrients in exchange for photosynthesized sugars. Since sugar is based on carbon, which the fungi convert to very stable molecules, this mutually beneficial relationship serves as carbon's main pathway into the soil and promotes its sequestration. Essentially, while it is the plants that photosynthesize the carbon, it is the mycorrhizae that sequester it permanently in the soil. It is estimated that 13.1 gigatons of CO2 are sequestered annually by mycorrhizae in natural soils, but almost none in agricultural soils, where mycorrhizae have been depleted over the years.

Reintroducing mycorrhizae in cropland kickstarts the natural symbiotic networks that form the foundation of healthy fertile soil. Immediate results include higher yields with less fertilizer, improved resistance to plant stress, and the permanent sequestration of carbon in the soil. Mycorrhizae are the essential foundation of the soil-root interface known as the rhizosphere, which is the core platform underpinning soil biodiversity.

Farmers around the world are increasingly eager to implement regenerative agricultural practices to prevent land degradation and increase resilience in the face of climate change phenomena. Regenerative agriculture is focused on restoring and maintaining the microbial balance in agricultural land, especially when it comes to mycorrhizae. However, a full transition to regenerative agriculture typically takes several years before moderate results are obtained. Moreover, transitioning to regenerative methods is expensive and can entail drastically changing existing farming practices. Not surprisingly, adoption has been slow as farmers carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages involved in the transition.

Rootella has therefore rightfully been called a game-changer: desirable outcomes are visible after a single season, all while it accelerates the transition to regenerative agriculture and restores life in the soil. Rootella fits into the farmers' regular seed treatment processes using standard equipment and, since it is a highly concentrated product, it is extremely cost-effective: a mere 6 grams or ml of Rootella is required for treating seeds for an entire acre of crops (1.5 g/dunam)!

Rootella combines mycorrhizal fungus spores and hyphae with dried plant host root fragments using a unique technology. When applied to seeds as a seed treatment, fungal spores cover the seeds and, after sowing, the fungus germinates together with the seeds in the field. Although Groundwork BioAg is not the only company to produce mycorrhizal fungi, it is the only one capable of delivering such a cost-effective product to mainstream agriculture.

Carbon credits as a new revenue stream

It is estimated that land use change, mostly from agriculture, has been responsible for releasing approximately 785 gigatons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, making it one of the main contributors to climate change. This figure is comparable to the 989 gigatons of CO2 equivalent emitted by fossil fuel combustion over the same period. In recent years, the agricultural industry has been trying to mitigate its damage to the environment by actively trying to reduce its carbon footprint. However, the low adoption rate of regenerative agriculture initiatives has mostly left our croplands as a net carbon emitter to this day. By restoring mycorrhizae in croplands, agricultural fields can quickly and efficiently become net carbon retainers.

Groundwork BioAg realized that mycorrhiza is carbon's main pathway into the soil. Since the mycorrhizal carbon trail pumps significant amounts of carbon back into the soil through the fungal mycelia – using the carbon for its own use as well as transforming it into more permanent forms that endure for decades – the company began measuring how much carbon was actually being sequestered, and calculated its economic value.

"The sheer size of the carbon yield in the field was huge news for us and changed our whole business," divulges Dan Grotsky, Chief Growth Officer and one of the company's three co-founders. "We were able to take a proven business model and add a new revenue stream – carbon credits." According to Grotsky, when translated into carbon credits, the amount of carbon sequestered in the soil can offset Rootella's entire cost, and more. "As of last year, when we launched our Rootella Carbon program, our value proposition to the farmer became a no-brainer. Ultimately, farmers will be getting the product benefits of crop yield increase, fertilizer savings, and resilience in addition to a lucrative new carbon credit revenue stream," he notes.

The Rootella Carbon program was launched in 2023 in the United States, on 20,000 acres (80,000 dunams) of fields. This year, it will be implemented on at least five times as much land in the U.S. and in Brazil, and in 2025 it will expand even further. The company is collecting large amounts of data to ascertain that the carbon credits are of high integrity so that they can be priced accordingly. "Humanity needs to reduce emissions or sequester approximately 20 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. We can contribute to that. We expect to sequester 1-4 tons of CO2 equivalent per acre (0.3-1 tons per dunam) per year. Those are very high numbers, that should make Groundwork BioAg a gigacorn within a decade" says Grotsky, referring to a term defining a startup that manages to reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions by over one gigaton of CO2 equivalent.

To ensure transparency and validation, Groundwork BioAg is voluntarily following protocols established in 2023 by Verra, the world's largest certifier of voluntary carbon offsets. "In May 2023, Verra released the first international protocol that recognizes mycorrhizal carbon," Grotsky explained, "and therefore Rootella Carbon is the first mycorrhizal carbon program in the world."

Making a difference on a global scale

Groundwork BioAg was founded in 2014 by Dr. Yossi Kofman – CEO, Danny Levy – CTO, and Dan Grotsky – CGO. The initial technology was licensed from the Volcani Institute (ARO) and since then it has undergone numerous modifications by the company's large in-house R&D team. Today, the company employs 75 employees, most of whom work out of the headquarters in Moshav Mazor, near Tel Aviv. In addition to a second production facility in southern Israel, there is also a subsidiary in Brazil and offices in the United States, China, and India – the world's four largest breadbaskets.

The company is constantly expanding to new markets, expertly overcoming the challenges of registration imposed by each country – some of which are more stringent than others. After recently obtaining registration in China, local distributors are now being brought on board and sales will begin in that market in 2024.

"The mycorrhizal market is growing fast as farmers better understand its value. We are at the forefront of the mycorrhizal carbon market by offering a new revenue stream to growers while helping improve global agriculture's carbon footprint," Grotsky promises.

For more information, click here.

in partnership with Groundwork BioAg