New technologies for revival of farm soil
2023.02.01 04:01
New technologies for revival of farm soil
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – Scientists and developers are looking into novel, largely unproven ways to preserve soil for agriculture as extreme weather and human activity degrade the world’s arable land.
One company is injecting liquid clay into the desert of California to hold in moisture and aid fruit growth, while another in Malaysia adds fly larvae’s droppings to the soil. Vicky Levesque, a Canadian researcher, is improving the growth of apples by incorporating biochar, which is the burned plant and wood waste residue, into the soil in a greenhouse in Nova Scotia.
More frequent droughts, floods, and temperature extremes are proving insurmountable for long-established soil preservation methods like less tilling and off-season crop sowing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), soil erosion is reducing dirt’s capacity to produce food and could result in a 10% reduction in global crop production by 2050.
If they prove to be profitable and effective, new “soil amendment” solutions that enhance the physical properties of soil may complement the conventional methods.
The commercial production of biochar, liquid clay, and fly larvae droppings is limited. According to Ole Kristian Sivertsen, chief executive of liquid clay company Desert Control, which made its first commercial sale in December, development of such solutions has accelerated in recent years as soil degradation has worsened.
ETT:, Bayer AG through Leaps by Bayer (OTC:), the largest seed company in the world is one of the companies looking into new ways to restore soil. its venture capital unit, according to Bayer’s sustainability chief Matthias Berninger.
Products aimed at regenerating farmland go further than Bayer and other companies’ work on non-chemical methods of adding nutrients to crops, such as adding microbes to the soil. Some, like biochar and liquid clay, improve the ground’s ability to retain water while also adding nutrients and needing fewer applications than fertilizer.
Berninger stated in an interview, “We have really started to focus on the soil in ways we traditionally wouldn’t have done.”
Biochar is a synthetic method for producing a product that is rich in carbon to improve soils. It is modeled after extremely fertile areas of Amazon (NASDAQ:). rainforest that are known as “Dark Earths” because they were made over time from cooking, animal decomposition, and manure.
Levesque stated that biochar has the potential to be a “great opportunity” for capturing plant-sustaining carbon in the soil, noting that biochar also functions as a water sponge.
Her work, which started in 2012, has shown that biochar-treated clay soil emits significantly less nitrous oxide, which is good for the environment and keeps more carbon in the ground, where it can help plants grow.
Because biochar encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria, it increased greenhouse tomato and sweet pepper yields by 32% and 54%, respectively, while requiring less fertilizer.
She stated, however, that additional research is required before scientists are able to determine how effectively biochar could regenerate various soil types worldwide.
Desert Control, based in Norway, has spent $25 million and 18 years developing liquid clay to improve soil. It injected its product into a desert area in the United States the previous year, where the clay bonds with the sand to better retain water and nutrients.
According to Robert Masson, an official at the Yuma County Cooperative Extension of the University of Arizona who grew the plants, preliminary data from a five-year trial showed that romaine lettuce hearts in sand treated with clay were on average 21-53% larger than romaine lettuce hearts grown in the same conditions without clay.
Desert Control and Limoneira Company agreed to a $182,000 contract in November. In the beginning, Limoneira Company will apply liquid clay to 4,000 trees on two of its citrus farms in California and Arizona, both of which are experiencing severe drought conditions. Limoneira plans to expand application in the fourth quarter, depending on outcomes.
Sivertsen stated:
“Cover crops and no-till are good practices, but they are far from enough.”
Nutrition Technologies uses the waste and skin of Black Soldier Fly larvae to make “soil conditioner” in Malaysia. According to the findings of the company’s research, composting frass resulted in an increase of 12 percent in the organic matter present in the soil that is beneficial to plants and normally decreases over time.
Martin Zorrilla, the chief technology officer of Nutrition Technologies, stated that the company, which was founded in 2015, sells an average of 200 tonnes of frass each month in Malaysia, primarily to farmers who apply it to leafy greens, cucumbers, and fruit.
In September, the company completed its most recent funding round, raising $20 million.
Zorrilla stated that although the majority of Malaysian fertilizer manufacturers now sell frass, volumes are still insufficient to attract the attention of global agricultural companies.
He stated:
“Ultimately, soil is a living system, which is one reason natural processes take so long to build soil and why it is so easy to lose it.”
