Commercial and on-farm microbial bioinputs production systems: challenges, opportunities and current Brazilian regulatory framework

Microbial bioinputs have emerged as an innovative solution to more sustainable agriculture, with microorganisms playing diverse roles in plants. The increasing adoption of bioinput requires efficient production systems, which can be industrial facilities or on-farm biofactories - self-use units installed on rural properties. Thus, evaluating the opportunities and potential risks associated with bioinput production, particularly those based on bacterial and fungal strains, is crucial. This work presents a review of the on-farm production of bioinputs in Brazil. First, the Brazilian regulatory framework for bioinputs and the environmental and economic advantages of using bioinputs are summarized. Then, opportunities and challenges of bioproduct on-farm production are reviewed and discussed. The results highlight that producer and environmental safety, as well as risks to public health due to microbiological contamination in biofactories, appear as the main challenges in on-farm production. Indeed, the propagation of non-target microorganisms, which can be potentially pathogenic to humans, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp., has been reported in various studies. In addition, the success of bioinputs produced on-farm depends on the ability of the biofactories to properly propagate the target microorganisms and guarantee the quality of them. For this, certain parameters, such as viability, cell counting, identity, and other characteristics, must be analyzed during the manufacturing process. In conclusion, the growth trend of bioinput adoption and the risks associated with this type of product require adequate management, including the adoption of quality control in the production process that considers biological safety parameters.