Brasilia: For decades, Brazilian scientist Dr Mariangela Hungria has worked on an idea that sounds simple but has transformed parts of modern agriculture: using beneficial bacteria to help plants obtain one of their most important nutrients.
Hungria, a microbiologist and senior researcher at Brazil’s agricultural research organisation Embrapa, became a leading figure in biological nitrogen fixation. The process uses microorganisms such as rhizobia to convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into forms that plants can use, reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilisers.
Her research helped turn microbial inoculants into practical agricultural products that can be applied to seeds or soil. More than 30 technologies developed by Hungria and her research teams have been used with crops including soybeans, beans, maize, wheat, rice and pasture grasses.
The scale of adoption has been significant. Her technologies are estimated to be used across more than 40 million hectares in Brazil, with biological inoculants now applied to most of the country’s soybean crop. The World Food Prize Foundation (WFPF) says the innovations have enabled farmers to save billions of dollars while reducing environmental risks associated with synthetic fertiliser use.
Estimates cited by the Japanese International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) put the annual savings for Brazilian farmers at about USD 25 billion, while avoided emissions are estimated at roughly 230 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.
Hungria’s scientific record is equally extensive. She has published more than 500 articles, chapters and other academic works and spent decades working with farmers to turn laboratory research into technologies that could be used in the field.
In 2025, she received the World Food Prize for her advances in biological nitrogen fixation and sustainable crop nutrition. The USD 500000 prize recognised research that has helped farmers produce more while reducing reliance on chemical inputs.
The wider significance of Hungria’s work is that some of agriculture’s biggest challenges may not always require more chemicals or larger machines. In Brazil, microscopic organisms have become a practical tool for lowering costs, improving crop nutrition and reducing the environmental footprint of food production.
