mineral fertilizer News
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Uralkali announcement
Uralkali (the Company; Moscow Exchange: URKA), one of the world’s leading potash producers, provides the following comment on the conclusion of a long-term contract between Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) and IPL, India’s largest importer of mineral fertilizers. Alexander Terletskiy, Uralkali Trading CEO, commented: Considering the positive market conditions demonstrated in ...
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Population has bigger effect than climate change on crop yields, study suggests
Population pressure will be as significant a factor as climate change in reducing crop yields — and thus increasing food insecurity — in West Africa, according to a modelling study. The authors inserted different climate change, land use, and demographic change scenarios, into an internationally validated model to estimate maize yields in Benin from 2021–2050. They found that, ...
By SciDev.Net
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Using organic fertilizers could protect against climate change
Studies show that soil fertilized with organic materials, such as compost, could increase the amount of stored carbon and potentially help slow down greenhouse emissions. Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting, to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, ...
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Preserve, promote, and utilise rich soil life
Healthy soil life can contribute to sustainable agriculture which, in addition to ensuring a good yield, keeps diseases under control and generates carbon and nitrogen retention. That is what Prof. Gerlinde De Deyn, Professor holding a personal chair in Soil Ecology, asserted in her inaugural address at Wageningen University & Research on 18 May. Life underground is richer in species than ...
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Cassava`s huge potential as 21st Century crop
Save and Grow, an environmentally-friendly farming model promoted by FAO, can sustainably increase cassava yields by up to 400 percent and help turn this staple from a poor people's food into a 21st Century crop, FAO said today. In a newly-published field guide detailing Save and Grow's applications to cassava smallholder production, FAO noted that global cassava output has increased by 60 ...
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Chinese Researcher Wins International Award for Breakthroughs in Agricultural Efficiency
Chinese researcher Professor Weifeng Zhang has been awarded the IFA Norman Borlaug Award ahead of Global Fertilizer Day (October 13) for his pioneering work to improve both farm efficiencies and agricultural productivity in China. Prof. Zhang has been the driving force behind several initiatives and government policies in recent years that have bolstered China’s ability to feed a growing ...
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SPS 2014 – Sustainable Phosphorus Summit
SPS 2014, the fourth world summit on phosphorus and its global issues, is to be held from 1 to 3 September 2014 in Montpellier (France). Its aim is to address the issue of phosphorus, from a regional to a global scale, along with its many interactions with our societies. SPS 2014 will be held just after PSP5 - Phosphorus in Soil and Plants, 5th International Symposium, to take place in ...
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Basic knowledge of organic fertilizer granulation equipment Disc granulator
In the field of agitator granulation equipment, the disc granulator machine (sometimes also called a pan granulator) is usually chosen because of its ability to produce refined products. It is used to process everything from chemical powders, fly ash and soil amendments to minerals and ores, fertilizers and more. More and more fertilizer machine manufacturers are competing to sell, and the ...
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Tillage and reduced-input rotations affect runoff from agricultural fields
A new study from researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service provides information about runoff under different management practices and can help farmers choose the practice that is best for them. No-till management practices can reduce soil erosion, but evidence suggests they can also lead to increased runoff of dissolved phosphorus from soil surfaces. Meanwhile, farmers looking to ...
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Ecosystem-based farming comes of age
A new FAO book out today takes a close look at how the world's major cereals maize, rice and wheat - which together account for an estimated 42.5 percent of human calories and 37 percent of our protein - can be grown in ways that respect and even leverage natural ecosystems. Drawing on case studies from around the planet, the new book illustrates how the "Save and Grow" approach to agriculture ...
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Delta-T Devices soil sensors used by Rothamsted Research for the world`s oldest continuously-running agricultural field experiment
Rothamsted Research is the longest-running agricultural research institute in the world, with a history dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Sir John Bennet Lawes, an archetypal Victorian scientist, entrepreneur and benefactor, became interested in agricultural science after leaving Oxford University. On assuming responsibility for the family estate at Rothamsted (Harpenden, ...
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Effects of chemical fertiliser and animal manure on soil health compared
Fertilising crops with cattle manure can lead to better soil quality than when synthetic fertiliser is used, recent research indicates. The use of cattle manure in the study led to greater soil fertility by encouraging higher microbial activity, and the researchers suggest that it could potentially improve soil’s ability to cope with periods of difficult growing conditions. The complex ...
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Diesel efficiency in agricultural production
The topic of diesel efficiency has only become an increasing focus for farmers in recent decades, following earlier decades of concentrating above all on timely and high quality performance of work with modern agricultural machinery and equipment. The discussion on diesel efficiency, which is still topical today, was triggered not only by rising fuel costs, but also by the environmental policy ...
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High-nature-value grasslands can be maintained by alternating between mowing and grazing
Scientists recommend policies that alternate between mowing and grazing to manage Europe’s high-nature-value grasslands. This comes after a new seven-year study found that a high plant-species diversity helps grasslands to maintain productivity and to resist depletion of phosphorus caused by livestock grazing and depletion of potassium caused by mowing. Grasslands with high levels of ...
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`We need a new approach for better soil`
‘Dutch agricultural soils are not future-proof’ was a widely accepted statement at the final meeting of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Sustainable Soil. Breeders, chain partners, suppliers, the government and the science sector see a gradual deterioration in soil quality and are joining forces within the PPP to find a solution. “It isn’t a simple matter,” says ...
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Sustainable phosphorus use — evaluating past patterns to inform future management
Recycling waste from farming and mining could help improve the sustainable use of phosphorus, a recent study suggests. The study traced the stocks and flows of phosphorus over a 50 year period to reveal changing patterns of global phosphorus use. The results can be used to develop the sustainable management of phosphorus — a finite and critical resource — in the future. Phosphorus is ...
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Banana compost could boost crop yields, a study finds
Using old banana trees to make compost may help boost crop yields while cutting down water and fertiliser use, according to an Egyptian researcher. Banana-based fertiliser could cut about 20 per cent of the water used in irrigating maize and lead to better yields and improved soil properties — such as availability of micronutrients and soil moisture — a researcher at Egypt's National ...
By SciDev.Net
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Comparing N2O emissions from organic and mineral fertilisers
A recent study compares the effects of organic, 'natural' fertilisers, such as compost, with mineral, synthetic fertilisers, such as urea, on N2O emissions from Mediterranean soil. It suggests that there is little difference between the fertilisers, but that pig slurry offers the best overall balance in terms of emissions and crop yield. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG). ...
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Utilisation of nitrogen and phosphate on dairy farms could be increased
Nitrogen and phosphate are important fertilisers. But excessive amounts often found in fields and pastures end up polluting the ground and surface water. Furthermore, dairy farmers are squandering their profits by wasting these expensive fertilisers. The Koeien & Kansen [Cattle and Opportunities] project set up by two PhD candidates from Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, shows how ...
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Household compost as good for soil as conventional fertilisers, say EU researchers
Since 2005, conventional disposal of organic waste has been prohibited in Sweden. Instead, this waste is incinerated or separated at source, processed (composted or anaerobically digested) and recycled as fertiliser on crop land. A new study has investigated the use of organic waste from different sources as a fertiliser and found that residue from biogas production is an effective fertiliser. ...
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