Scientist rewarded with prestigious prize after helping revolutionize farming: 'A role model'

Mariangela Hungria, a Brazilian microbiologist, was awarded the World Food Prize, a prestigious $500,000 honor that recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the production, distribution, and availability of food worldwide, NPR reported. Her work with microbes has encouraged thriving farmlands that bolster Brazil's rise as an agricultural superpower. 

Hungria's journey into agricultural science began when she was a young girl and her grandmother taught her all about plants and soil. After being gifted a book about microbiologists, Hungria was motivated to follow in their footsteps. 

This seed of inspiration led her to pursue a doctorate from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro and find work with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp. (EMBRAPA) after graduation. 

For years, Hungria worked hard on isolating soil microbes and beneficial bacteria strains that could help increase crop yields. Healthy soil is the key — a living roadmap — to a successful and thriving ecosystem. 

Healthy soil has a symbiotic, or mutually beneficial relationship, with plants. 

According to The Conservation Foundation, healthy soil, which contains beneficial microbes that help plants more easily access essential minerals and nutrients, produces stronger, higher-quality, and more nutritious vegetables without the need for harmful chemical pesticides. 

Per NPR, Hungria successfully isolated strains of the rhizobia bacteria, which encourages crop yields by stimulating nitrogen fixation — the process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into usable organic nitrogen that supports plant health and growth. She also closely studied Azospirillum, soil microbes that also engage in nitrogen fixation and encourage greater root growth, which improves plants' nutrient absorption. 

Her work has influenced the commercial microbes market in Brazil's agricultural landscape. Farmers are revitalizing their land and crops with beneficial bacteria that can encourage crop productivity instead of deploying chemical sprays that are harmful to pollinators and humans. 

Hungria is the second EMBRAPA scientist to receive the World Food Prize. 

The first recipient, Edson Lobato, designed ways to grow crops on previously unsuitable land in the Cerrado — a tropical savanna in Brazil with acidic soil unfit for growing crops. Lobato's work helped transform this vast land mass into thriving soybean farms — and the crop has become one of Brazil's biggest exports. 

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Hungria will proudly accept the World Food Prize in October during the annual World Food Prize ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, but she has bigger things in store. She plans to start her own award using the $500,000. 

As a mother and a woman in the field of biology, she wants to recognize notable women in the agricultural science and special needs spaces. She believes that with more women in the industry, agricultural conversations will shift from strategizing how to deforest and exploit more land and resources for agriculture to how to better take care of the land designated for food production to increase food security. 

"She's a phenomenal scientist. A role model for many people, including myself," said Leo Bortolon, a Brazilian soil scientist conducting research at North Dakota State University, per NPR. 

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