Soil is a living entity that contains many small things, not to mention insects, earthworms, and other visible creatures, but we are talking about micro-organisms, the size of which is measured in hundredths of a millimeter, they are not visible to the naked eye, they are visible under a microscope, or by combining these micro-organisms in special media, and then all these microorganisms can be seen with the naked eye.
During Latvia’s independence, Professor Alfreds Kalnins started to focus on soil research.
Although he was not yet a professor, a curious student, he studied at the Latvia University of Agriculture and later abroad – in England, the Netherlands, Germany – he came to the conclusion that microorganisms are the ones that make the soil alive, rich and diverse.
Acquiring knowledge abroad, Alfreds Kalnins did not obey the temptation to work and study foreign microorganisms, but he returned to Latvia and started working on Latvian soil microorganisms. Each country has its own characteristic set of microorganisms. Microorganisms, grown in the southern lands, are poorly populated in the northern climatic zones and vice versa.
The professor developed his scientific career during the time of Latvia’s independence. A great deal of effort had been put into studying the microflora of our soil, and a large and voluminous body of facts has been obtained which will hardly ever be repeated.
Kalnins gathered around him a group of curious people, and in year 1936 the first microbiological preparation was developed – clover nitrogen, which farmers could practically use in clover sowings. The bacterium in this product bound nitrogen from the air and gave it back to the plant in a usable form.
Even during the Soviet era, these research works were not completely abandoned, but the intensity and need also seemed to be gone. The The awareness of the need for this work remained firmly and unchangingly in Kalnins’ students, and they never doubted their importance and need and the remuneration could not change their beliefs.
As a result of the work of a whole generation of Latvian microbiologists, cultures of microorganisms were separated, which can be practically used for agricultural purposes, improving soil fertility with simple methods only with one’s own knowledge and strength – it is part of one’s independence.
The initiator of “BioEfekta” is a microbiologist, Anita Lielpētere. Without her enthusiasm, entrepreneurship, knowledge and leadership skills, BioEfekta products would not have been created and available on the Latvian market. Anita Lielpētere has worked with Professor Kalniņs’ collaborators for many years. Their fanatical faith in the need for her work convinced A. Lielpēteris that this work must be continued in a free country. She was in charge of a collection of microorganisms.
