What are Mycorrhizal Fungi (MF)?
Mycorrhizal fungi are organic organisms commonly found in nature. They colonize the roots of many plant species including legumes. These fungi live symbiotically with their hosts, absorbing phosphorus from the soil, and transporting it to the root systems. In preliminary tests Ylva and her colleagues have shown that enhanced mycorrhizal colonization of a number of legumes grown in soil in Zimbabwe increases nitrogen content indirectly by increasing phosphorus uptake. “We first used peanut because it is a legume that is commonly grown by subsistence farmers. Peanut growth and nitrogen content was strongly limited by phosphorus availability, and by amending the soil with mycorrhizal fungi, peanut nitrogen content was significantly increased,” Ylva reports. Spreading the word “In temperate agro-ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungal abundance can be increased by reducing fallow periods and tillage,” explains Ylva. “We want to take these lessons learned from temperate systems and try to apply them
