soil nitrogen News
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Nitrogen fixation helps double some African farm yields
A large-scale research and development project has shown that giving farmers resources and advice on nitrogen fixation through legume plants can double yields and boost incomes in Africa. But not all farmers are benefiting from this practice due to a lack of access to inputs, such as fertilisers says Ken Giller, the leader of the N2Africa project, as a second phase to widen access to the ...
By SciDev.Net
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Plant strategies for optimising nitrate intake
The less nitrogen there is in the soil, the better plants are at using it. Researchers from INRA, CNRS and CIRAD, in cooperation with Czech colleagues, have recently shed light on the crucial role of a protein that enables plants to not only assess their environment but also activate the proper adaptive response based on the conditions. This research, published in the 2 March 2015 issue of Nature ...
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Integrating animal and crop production can reduce nutrient leaching from agricultural fields
Nutrient leaching, the movement of plant nutrients from soil to water, can have negative effects on aquatic ecosystems due to eutrophication, which reduces the oxygen available in water, causing species and habitat loss. Ecological Recycling Agriculture (ERA), which is based on ecological principles and integrates crop production and animal husbandry, may limit this effect. This study ...
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Soil biodiversity reduces nitrogen pollution and improves crops’ nutrient uptake
Increased soil biodiversity can reduce nitrogen pollution, improve nutrient uptake by plants and even increase crop yields, new research suggests. The two-year study found that levels of nitrogen leaching from soil with an abundant soil life were nearly 25% lower than for soil with a reduced level of soil life. Practices which enhance soil biodiversity such as reduced tilling, crop rotation and ...
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Desert bacteria could help boost crop yields
Desert soil microbes could help halt desertification and boost agriculture in arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa, according to a study. Scientists from the United Arab Emirates [UAE] have isolated local salt- and drought-tolerant strains of Rhizobia, soil bacteria that fix nitrogen when they become established inside the root nodules of legumes. Rhizobia bacteria establish a ...
By SciDev.Net
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Fertilizer Use to Surpass 200 Million Tonnes in 2018
Global fertilizer use is likely to rise above 200.5 million tonnes in 2018, 25 percent higher than recorded in 2008. World fertilizer consumption will grow by 1.8 percent a year through 2018, according to FAO's new report "World fertilizer trends and outlook to 2018." At the same time "the global capacity of fertilizer products, intermediates and raw materials will increase further," the report ...
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Soil moisture monitoring for better irrigation and crop nutrition in Cucumbers
Soil moisture monitoring is often thought of as a water saving technology. While this is true, there are other significant benefits from soil moisture monitoring. Crop nutrition is intrinsically linked to crop irrigation. Many nutrients move quickly with water or only move through plants when water is available. Nitrogen (N) is released in water and too much irrigation can result in nitrogen ...
By Wildeye
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Less nitrogen could increase profit & sustainability
More fertilizer doesn't always mean more profit. That's one conclusion from a 10-year study conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at the agency’s Soil Plant Nutrient Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., and colleagues at Colorado State University. From 1998 to 2008, the researchers evaluated and compared potential management strategies for reducing nitrogen and nitrate ...
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Many Countries Reaching Diminishing Returns in Fertilizer Use
By Lester R. Brown When German chemist Justus von Liebig demonstrated in 1847 that the major nutrients that plants removed from the soil could be applied in mineral form, he set the stage for the development of the fertilizer industry and a huge jump in world food production a century later. Growth in food production during the nineteenth century came primarily from expanding cultivated area. It ...
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