WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan. 30 (Reuters) – As extreme weather and human activity ravage the world’s arable lands, scientists and developers seek new, little-proven ways to conserve soil for agriculture. I am considering how to do this.
One company injects liquid clay into the California desert to trap moisture and help fruit grow, while another in Malaysia fertilizes the soil with fly larva droppings.A greenhouse in Nova Scotia, Canada. Scientist Vicky Levesque adds biochar, the residue from burning plant and wood waste, to the soil to help apples grow.
Long-established soil conservation techniques, such as reducing tillage and sowing crops in the off-season, are proving not to match the more frequent droughts, floods and temperature extremes. Soil erosion is depleting the soil’s food-producing capacity and could reduce global crop production by 10% by 2050, according to the agency.
New ‘soil amendment’ solutions that improve soil physical properties have the potential to complement traditional methods if they prove to be profitable and effective.
Biochar, liquid clay, and fly larvae droppings are all of limited commercial production. Ole Kristian Sivertsen, chief executive of liquid clay company Desert Control, says the development of such solutions has accelerated in recent years as soil degradation worsens. (DSRT.OL)made its first commercial sale in December.
Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE)It is the world’s largest seed company.
Bayer and others are already working on non-chemical ways to add nutrients to crops, such as adding microorganisms to the soil, but products aimed at regenerating farmland are going further. Some, such as liquid clays and biochars, improve the soil’s water-holding capacity while adding nutrients and require less application than fertilizers.
“We started focusing on soil in ways that weren’t previously thought possible,” Berninger said in an interview.
dark earth
Biochar is rich in carbon to fortify soil, modeled after a highly fertile patch of the Amazon rainforest called “Dark Earth,” produced over time as a by-product of cooking, animal decomposition, and manure. It is an artificial means of creating a product.
Levesque said biochar could be a “golden opportunity” to trap plant-sustaining carbon in the soil, adding that biochar also acts like a sponge for water.
Her research, which began in 2012, found that biochar-treated clay soils significantly reduced nitrous oxide emissions, benefiting the atmosphere and trapping more carbon in the ground to boost plant growth. showed what it can do.
Some types of biochar increased yields of greenhouse tomatoes and peppers by 32% and 54%, respectively, but less fertilizer was needed because biochar promoted the growth of bacteria that help plants grow. I was.
But more research is needed before scientists know how effectively biochar can regenerate different types of soil around the world, she said.
Norway-based Desert Control spent 18 years and $25 million to develop a liquid clay that strengthens the soil. Last year, the company injected its product into parts of the U.S. desert. There, the clay binds with the sand to better retain water and nutrients.
On sand treated with clay, romaine lettuce hearts are on average 21 to 53 percent better than romaine lettuce grown under the same conditions without clay, according to Robert Masson, an official with the Yuma County Cooperative at the University of Arizona. It was shown to be a large planted extension.
In November, Desert Control signed a $182,000 contract with the Limoneira Company. (LMNR.O)At two citrus plantations in the drought-stricken states of California and Arizona, 4,000 trees are first coated with liquid clay. Depending on the results, Limoneira plans to expand its application in the fourth quarter.
Each application is valid for up to five years.
“Cover crops and no-tillage are good practices, but not enough,” says Sivertsen.
In Malaysia, Nutrition Technologies manufactures a ‘soil conditioner’ from frass (the waste and skins of the larvae of the black soldier fly). A study by the company found that composted frass increased plant-nourishing soil organic matter by 12%.
Founded in 2015, Nutrition Technologies sells an average of 200 tons of frass per month in Malaysia, mainly to farmers who use frass for leafy greens, cucumbers and fruits, according to the company’s top technology. Director Martin Zorilla said.
The company raised its latest funding round of $20 million in September.
Currently, most Malaysian fertilizer producers sell frass, but the volume is still too small to attract the attention of global agricultural companies, Solira said.
“At the end of the day, soil is a living system. This is one of the reasons why natural processes take so long to build soil and it is so easily lost,” he said.
Reported by Rod Nickel of Winnipeg.Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Chris Sanders
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