A natural seed coating to help battle the A$50 million fight against fungal diseases has been awarded the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Eureka Prize for Research to Improve the Environmental Sustainability of Graingrowing.

GRDC supported research by CSIRO Western Australia’s Dr Margaret Roper and Professor Chris Franco of Flinders University, South Australia discovered a way to control root disease without chemicals, while in some cases introducing growth hormones to plants.

The treatment is made from the spores of naturally occurring microbes -- filamentous actinobacteria -- which produce compounds that discourage fungal growth, while encouraging plant growth.

It can increase yields by five to 60 per cent in soils affected by fungal diseases such as Take-all, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium.

Research continues to develop this technology for simple adoption by growers.