BioEnsure Scaling Project

Climate change-induced environmental stresses, including drought, extreme temperatures, and soil salinization, threaten food security all over the world, with developing countries expected to be the most significantly impacted. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable, including nearly 120 million subsistence farmers in India who live on less than $2 per day. To improve crop resilience and yields under these stressful conditions, Washington state-based biotech company Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies (AST) developed BioEnsure, a low-cost, fungus-based seed treatment that increases the ability of plants to access water and nutrients in the soil. Unlike many products meant to improve agricultural productivity, BioEnsure requires almost no behavior change by farmers, making it an easily adoptable solution that can be applied to both new seeds and seeds from previously harvested plants. In a pilot program, smallholder farmers in India increased their yields by over 50 percent on average. With support from the DIV Fund, AST is conducting peer reviewed trials and exploring new sales and distribution strategies, business models, and pricing structures to demonstrate a commercial pathway to scale in India over three years. This support aims to de-risk future investment in AST's Indian operations and attract private capital, while helping smallholder farmers access this innovative technology.