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Fourth World
May 18th, 2026
One year ago, the World Food Prize Foundation Brazilian agronomist and microbiologist Dr. Mariangela Hungria won the 2025 World Food Prize for her work on work on nitrogen fixation, soil health, and crop nutrition.
Hungria’s research has focused on increasing food production and improving crop quality by fully or partially replacing chemical fertilizers with microorganisms capable of biological nitrogen fixation, phytohormone synthesis, and the solubilization of phosphates and potassium-rich rocks. One of her major contributions was showing that, unlike findings reported in the United States, Australia, and Europe, annual soybean inoculation with Bradyrhizobium increases yields by an average of 8% in Brazil. And these gains can be achieved without nitrogen fertilizer - farmers have adopted the practice on 85% of Brazil’s soybean acreage.
Brazil is the largest agricultural producer and exporter in the Global South. Its agricultural sector generates over $500 billion annually, accounting for over 20% of the country's GDP. It is the world’s top exporter of soybeans, coffee, and beef, and leads in the production of sugarcane, maize, and poultry.
But Brazil is highly dependent on imported fertilizer, and farmers are expected to reduce their applications this year, impacting yields. As elsewhere, geopolitical events are impacting the country's productive capacity. The US-Israeli aggression against Iran has resulted in a partial shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which is a crucial part of the fertilizer supply chain.
A micro green revolution
Hungria, a researcher with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), is credited with helping Brazil become an agricultural powerhouse. But it took time for her methods to be widely embraced.
The World Food Prize laureate attended school in the 1970s, a time when when crop yields were seeing dramatic increases as a result of the Green Revolution, characterized by the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. But Hungria was interested in microorganisms, and she believed they offered a solution that didn’t require farmers to rely so heavily on synthetic chemicals. She called it a micro green revolution.
These methods are now being looked at worldwide as part of the shift toward regenerative agriculture, systems that restore soil life, reduce chemical dependence, and promote resilience in food systems. Hungria's work shows that tropical agriculture can be both productive and environmentally protective.
The pushback that Hungria once received from her teachers and peers was significant. “Everybody said that I had no future with biologicals,” she said in an interview with Food Tank. But Hungria persisted. In her research, she proved that it was possible for farmers to apply less fertilizer while also improving their yields and livelihoods.
“Nature already offers solutions. Our role is to understand these mechanisms and make them available to farmers in a safe, efficient, and accessible way.”
And through her career, farmers remained central to her work, Hungria says. “Every research that I did, it was because a farmer came to me to talk about something. It was because a farmer came [to me] or I met a farmer in the field, and he told me what he wanted and what was happening, and that gave me ideas to do my work.”
Sources include:
https://farmingfirst.org/2025/05/dr-mariangela-hungria-named-2025-world-food-prize-laureate/
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