Hope from Norfolk for World Food Production
June 29, 2006 9:38 AM
Too often, scientific advancements in agriculture are treated with alarm by the media and politicians, and scepticism by the public. However, today the Eastern Daily Press reports on research undertaken at the John Innes Centre in Colney which offers hope both to the environment and to revolutionise food production across the world.
Researchers are looking into ways of stimulating plants to capture their own nitrogen from the environment, thus reducing the need for nitrogen fertilisers. Fertilisers are both environmentally damaging, and expensive. They are often used in massive quantities. Their over-application leads to surface run-off, and leakage into groundwater. They can also emit nitrous oxide - a greenhouse gas, and they require large amounts of energy to make.
The use of fertilisers in recent decades has led to a massive increase in yields in the western world. But with 75% of the world's population, the Third World is using just 15% of the world's expensive fertilisers - yields remain low, and food production is inadequate for needs.
Replacing artificial fertilisers with crops that generate there own nutrients will both help the environment, and provide new hope for farmers across the world for increased yields.
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