Welcome to our Ask an Expert Series. This week we chat with soil health expert , Bernier Coto, about the role of microbial communities in cultivating healthy and sustainable soils.
Bernier Coto is an Agricultural Engineer who graduated from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica and has a Masters in Agribusiness Management from Costa Rica University. With over 20 years of experience in exports, sales, production, and agronomic application of agricultural inputs in tropical crops in Central America, Bernier is the Research and Development Manager of Agrícola Piscis and its sister company Humitec de Centroamérica.
Bernier is one of Black Earth’s trusted growth partners with more than 10 years of experience in the formulation of chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers and soil amendments, five years of experience in research and implementation of organic and microbiological management of tropical crops in Central America and five years of experience in formulations of natural and biological products.
Microbial communities are important to healthy and productive plant growth. Humics help microbes do their job by aerating the soil, enhancing nutrient availability and improving water retention.
The root system regulates the physiological processes of the plant. In order to regulate these processes, the roots need to have a symbiotic relationship with the rhizosphere microbiology of the soil.
Roots are one of the most important organs of plants. The neurological function that the root performs, cannot be done alone, it needs to have a symbiotic relationship with the rhizospheric microbiology that is associated in the first millimeters of soil closest to this plant organ and this living interaction is intimately associated with its content of organic matter.
