Rafael Venado

He/Him

I am gay and I am a PhD student at LMU-University of Munich. Very committed to sustainable agriculture and food security.//

Agricultural research, both basic and applied, is ever developing new and improved methodologies to breed new varieties that are better able to withstand climate change, biotic pests and produce more biomass and grain. However, in farmers’ fields, various factors often confound these best intentions to prevent a variety’s full potential to be achieved and realised.One critical crop productivity component is the availability of nitrogen for a crop. Fertilizer application can be effective, but often it leads to environment degradation due to over or ineffective use, and can reduce profitability. For legumes, a model system of rhizobium nitrogen fixation is effective for reduced carbon footprint in agriculture. Symbiotic associations are not known to occur between bacteria and various other types of plants. My research explores the host genetic control, leading to understand the mechanisms that plants use to associate with rhizobia. The knowledge acquired from my Ph.D. studies along with my skills in plant breeding will lead me to reach my long-term goal, which is to transfer this system into non-legume plants and reduce the dependency of fertilizers.