A new synthetic fertiliser could help farmers to save money, boost food production and reduce planet-warming emissions, scientists have found after trialling it on rice farms in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
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By slowing down the release of nutrients the fertiliser will help farmers to increase crop yields using less chemicals, the scientists from Britain and Sri Lanka said.<\/p>\n
Chemical fertilisers such as the nitrogen-rich urea were key to the agricultural boom of the 1960s and 70s known as the \u201cGreen Revolution\u201d but their cost remains relatively high for farmers in the developing world.<\/p>\n
Agricultural production must rise by about 60 percent to feed a growing global population, expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, according to the United Nation\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO).<\/p>\n
Urea, commonly used to grow rice, wheat and maize, dissolves quickly when in contact with water and part of its nutrients are washed away before crop roots can absorb them.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, more applications are needed, which can prove too expensive for farmers in poor regions, the scientists wrote in the scientific journal ACS Nano this week.<\/p>\n
Moreover, unabsorbed urea particles go on to form ammonia that pollutes waterways and eventually causes the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The new fertiliser delays the dissolution of urea by binding it with a mineral to slow down the release of nutrients 12 times, the scientists said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plant takes up more of the fertiliser and less is wasted,\u201d said Gehan Amaratunga of the University of Cambridge in Britain, co-author of the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis goes a long way to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture,\u201d he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone late on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Initial trials using the new fertiliser on rice farms in Sri Lanka showed production grew up to 20 percent using almost half the amount of fertiliser, Amaratunga said.<\/p>\n
Amaratunga said he hoped the innovation could help usher in a new, more eco-friendly Green Revolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a Green Revolution…as it\u2019s more food and less environmental damage,\u201d he said.\u2014Thomson Reuters Foundation<\/p>\n
Image: Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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