Forward speaks to Ángela de Manzanos Guinot, founder of FA Bio, about how they are replacing harsh agricultural chemicals with naturally occurring fungi which work in harmony with agricultural soils, and how this leads to higher crop yields, reduced environment impact and lower costs.
Forward: features are independent pieces written for Mewburn Ellis discussing and celebrating the best of innovation and exploration from the scientific and entrepreneurial worlds.
Modern farming relies on the use of industrial chemicals. These include nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to improve soil health. Pesticides to kill bugs. Herbicides for weeds. Fungicides for disease control. Growth regulators such as gibberellic acid and ethephon control crop height and synchronise ripening.
It's a potent cocktail, with a high environmental and financial cost.
“The continued high application levels of fungicides on agricultural fields is leading to more resistance,” says Ángela de Manzanos Guinot, founder of FA Bio. “This is causing a lot of human health problems in addition to soil health issues.”
Ángela de Manzanos Guinot - Founder of FA Bio
There is a radical alternative. By working with the soil microbiome, farmers can achieve similar or even superior results with none of the detrimental side-effects. Known as regenerative farming, this microbial approach has the potential to change farming worldwide.
“The microbiome consists of viruses, archaea, bacteria and fungi,” explains de Manzanos Guinot. “The relationship with plants is close and complex. Microbes make nutrients in the soil available, and change the structure of the soil, making it better for microbes to live in. Some kill insects. Some make water more accessible.”
The more we learn about the soil microbiome, the greater we understand how deep the connection runs. “Microbes can help plants resist abiotic stresses such as drought or flood, or produce compounds to alert other plants about potential stresses or to attract predators. The soil was previously like a black box. We saw fungi and viruses as diseases, and applied fungicides which depleted soil. At FA Bio we are researching the real relationship between the soil, the microbiome, and the plants to help improve soil health and crop yields.”
The rewards for replacing harsh chemicals with microbes working in harmony with the environment could be immense.
Human health can improve. There is a long history of questionable chemicals entering the food chain. For example, the organophosphate insecticide Chlorpyrifos was widely used for pest control since 1965, until concerns over toxicity led to restrictions by the EPA in the United States, and prohibitions for agricultural use in the EU and Australia. Multiple other chemicals are under review.
The environmental gains are significant. “Dead zones in lakes and rivers are caused by phosphate fertilisers in water eutrophication, contaminating reservoirs and killing fish,” points out de Manzanos Guinot. “We did an assessment, and manufacturing agrochemicals contributes 3% of the carbon footprint. Change that for microbes and you remove all the emissions. Fungi in the soil are the drivers converting organic matter into stable carbon, so they are a carbon sink. It really helps in our drive towards net zero in agriculture.”
The quest to harness soil microbes
FA Bio is on a mission to replace chemicals with microbes wherever possible. The company began in 2015 with a product to gather and sequence soil fungi. Since then, the team has expanded to 21 people, and the scope has widened.
“In 2020 we pivoted our mission from analysis to discovery of active ingredients,” says de Manzanos Guinot. “We focus on the development of bio fungicides, bio fertilisers, and bio insecticides.”
Wheat is a great example. Fungal diseases and insect pests cause up to a 40% loss of wheat crops and farmers predominantly rely on synthetic chemical pesticides. The aim – to benefit consumers, wildlife, and the wider environment – is to reduce reliance on these pesticides.
FA Bio is running a pilot to introduce fungi with biopesticide properties. These fungi were identified in the laboratory and greenhouse trials, and analysed with DNA sequencing. The result is a set of microbes able to control fungal diseases and pests, with none of the downsides of the synthetic products currently used.
“Fungi cause diseases,” says de Manzanos Guinot. “But they also make the plants healthy. They allow the plants access to nutrients locked in the soil, and regulate access to water. They provide the structure in the soil, where microbes can thrive or kill other microbes and insects.”
Another major research project is looking at the effects of drought on maize production. Maize is a critical crop globally – one of the big three along with rice and wheat. Climate change is threatening to increase drought stress, which affects the full life-cycle of maize, from seed germination and growth, to altering photosynthesis and plant water content. FA Bio is working with the Phenotyping Laboratory run by CHAP, an Innovate UK funded centre working on crops, to grow maize under a variety of drought and light conditions. It is precise work - CHAP’s Imaging LemnaTec PhenoCenter is a multi-camera system to measure the physiological impact on the maize plants grown under different watering programmes. The team at FA Bio are researching the interaction of soil microbes on the results in order to discover maize biofertilisers which are able to mitigate environmental conditions.
DNA sequencing the soil microbiome
The ambition of FA Bio stretches far beyond discovering correlation. The team wants to understand the complex chains of causation, and that goes all the way to the genetic code in the soil microbes.
The original product of the company is a small sensor called SporSenZ, which sits in the soil and collects beneficial and pathogenic microbes. “It started with the aim of alerting farmers to diseases active in their soil,” explains de Manzanos Guinot. “It has a gel inside which contains compounds normally present on the root surface. These compounds are like pheromones, attracting fungal microbes. After two weeks in the field the SporSenZ device is recovered and sent to the lab.” Rapid DNA sequencing gives a microbial profile of the soil. FA Bio has built artificial intelligence models in-house to accelerate and manage the sequencing process.
“In one gram of soil there are billions of potential microbes,” says de Manzanos Guinot. “We have 5,000 strains in our library, from around 500 species. We don't keep all strains, only those with biotechnological potential.”
The results give farmers a picture of their soil composition, and insights on how to manage their land. It may be possible to introduce new strains of fungi to target specific dangers and boost yield.
The focus of FA Bio is on fungi. “Viruses, archaea, and bacteria all play a role. But we are working with fungi, as it's where we began and there is so much to learn. Two strains of fungi from the same species can behave very differently. And fungi are complex. They have a flexible genome, able to mutate very quickly. That's their beauty.”
FA Bio is in good company. The soil microbiome industry is gaining huge publicity, owing to the startling results. “The 2025 World Food Prize was won by a Brazilian agronomist Dr Mariangela Hungria, for her work on the interaction of rhizobia and legumes,” notes de Manzanos Guinot proudly. “She demonstrated how rhizobia, a type of bacteria, was able to provide all the nitrogen the legumes need in exchange for energy. It's a symbiosis.”
Dr Hungria's work illustrates the potential of microbes to deliver results. She developed a microbial inoculant for green pastures, boosting biomass by 22% to improve food for cattle. Her work with rhizobia showed that soybean yields could rise 8%, and by adding another beneficial bacteria Azospirillum brasilens the yield of soybeans and common beans could be doubled. More than 70 million doses of the bacterial combination are now used on 15 million hectares of farmland in Brazil.
The dollar amounts saved on soya bean in Brazil are spectacular. A microbial approach, known as biological nitrogen fixation, was estimated to save $15.2 billion in a single season. Emissions are down too: biological nitrogen fixation saved carbon dioxide to an economic value of €5 billion. Big numbers for just one crop in one country.
The road ahead
There's work to do to convince farmers, says de Manzanos Guinot. “In the past there was a bit of snake oil. Farmers were given something which might work, or might not.” She emphasises that it is therefore important not to oversell biological products. “Biologicals are not a silver bullet. We are talking about living things. Application is more complex because of variables such as rain and heat. Industrial chemicals are more simple, as they are indiscriminate against all organisms. It is our industry responsibility to have a science-first approach, which explains the optimal conditions for biological products to work.”
That said, the appetite to replace industrial chemicals with environmentally beneficial biological products is tremendous.
Demand is growing from retailers and brands, both of which want to highlight their environmental credentials to consumers. Regulators want to cut down on harmful chemicals. And the savings in carbon emissions are tremendous.
For all these reasons, the opportunity for growth is immense. The market share for biologicals is still small: currently just $11 billion of the $280 billion spent globally each year on agricultural chemicals. “Biologicals is growing at a double digit rate, and it is forecast to be a quarter of the agricultural input market by the end of the decade.”
There is something intuitively attractive about returning to a more sensitive, harmonious era of farming, working with the natural rhythms of nature.
“The next generation of young farmers really care about their soil,” says de Manzanos Guinot. “They want to learn about the soil microbiome, and how all the ingredients interact. It's now part of the curriculum at agriculture schools. We see regenerative farming, with an emphasis on the soil microbiome, as the future of farming.”
Louise Atkins, Associate and Patent Attorney, at Mewburn Ellis comments:
“This is a powerful illustration of how investigations into the interactions between the microbiome and its surrounding environment can lead to the discovery of sustainable solutions, with the potential for significant environmental, health and economic benefits.To support innovation of this calibre, it is vital that Intellectual Property (IP) is considered from an early stage. Building a strong IP portfolio requires strategic patent protection tailored to different jurisdictional requirements, supported by complementary forms of IP. The microbiome and plant teams here at Mewburn have extensive experience advising on how best to strengthen IP portfolios to protect and commercialise such breakthroughs.Working with the FA Bio team has been both exciting and rewarding, combining their cutting-edge science with a commitment to sustainability and real-world impact. Helping such an enthusiastic team to maximise their IP assets and support their innovation has been a real pleasure."
Ben Tolley, Senior Associate and Patent Attorney, at Mewburn Ellis comments:
"Microbial-based crop solutions have enormous potential in helping to solve real‑world challenges in agriculture and planetary health, and it’s exciting to see the momentum building in this area. As the science and competitive environment mature, the intellectual property (IP) and regulatory landscapes are evolving too, which can be very challenging for companies to navigate as their products progress from trials to market. Making IP a focus of business strategy can be decisive in ensuring that the promise of the technology is realised. The team at FA-Bio are a pleasure to work with. Their enthusiasm for the science is infectious, and that is matched by a clear‑headed engagement with IP from an early stage. It’s a privilege to work with teams applying rigorous science to real‑world challenges, and we are delighted to be able to help them use IP to support their work."
Written by Charles Orten-Jones.
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