What if you could capture the fertilizer that washed away with the rain and reuse it on your field? A pair of South Dakota State University professors is studying a way to do just that.

Dr. Laurent Ahiablame, from the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering, teamed up with Dr. Srinivas Janaswamy, from the department of dairy and food science.

Ahiablame has worked with edge-of-field nutrient removal methods, namely the woodchip-filled pits known as bioreactors. Bioreactors use microbes and a carbon source to “eat away” the nitrogen that moves with the runoff through the field’s tile drainage system. “They’re a proven technology to improve water quality,” Ahiablame said.

The microbes release nitrogen into the air as a gas and keep it from polluting lakes and rivers, but Ahiablame wondered if there was a way to capture the nutrient and take it back to the field.

Janaswamy had an idea from the food industry. He believes products used to thicken foods such as salad dressings and ketchup could be used to absorb nutrients like nitrate and phosphorus.

The thickeners in the form of beads – fully biodegradable polysaccharides – would help clean runoff water, but they have another major benefit beyond what bioreactors do today. The tiny beads could be spread across the field where it would release the fertilizer again, this time for the plants’ benefit.

“Humans have been using polysaccharides as gelling and thickening agents for generations,” Janaswamy said.

He’s encouraged at the thought that these biomaterials could be used to help farmers feed the world in a way that’s friendlier to the environment and less expensive for producers.

“That is what we are dreaming,” he said.

The professors aren’t sure it will work like they hope, but studies on the beads over the coming years will help determine if it’s possible. The project recently received funding through a new state program.

Money for the project comes from a 50-cent increase in the fertilizer inspection fee. The Legislature approved the new program in 2016, and the South Dakota Nutrient Research and Education Council (NREC) awarded its first round of funding this summer. It’s meant to help improve environmental and water quality through better agricultural practices.

“The main driver is sustainability,” said Bill Gibbons, interim director of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, which helps administer and manage funding for the NREC. “Farmers are very interested in precise placement of nutrients. If any get lost to groundwater or surface water, it’s money out of their pocket.”

The state money funded three other fertilizer-related studies in its first round. One will come up with new nutrient recommendations for oats, updating 2005 guidelines. Another will compare manure and synthetic fertilizer used on cover crops, studying how they each impact soil fertility, water quality and yields. A third study will assess how microorganisms can be used to minimize nitrogen leaching after cover crops are killed by frost.

More funding will be awarded by the end of the year. So far, all projects are being conducted by South Dakota State University researchers, but the funding is open to any university, state, commodity or non-government organization. Gibbons said there’s preference given to South Dakota-based projects.

It’s important to have money dedicated to precise placement of nutrients because it impacts the environment, which affects everyone, he said.

“Farmers – they’re doing their best,” Ahiablame said. But there’s not a perfect way for farmers to control how much nutrients they’re losing, he said.

The beads could be placed in a plastic-lined bioreactor and be used to clean subsurface drainage. They could also be placed in a shallow trench at the edge of the field to capture surface runoff. Once they absorb the nutrients, the hope is that the beads would be applied to the field like fertilizer. The beads would dissolve and leave the nutrients behind.

“They are completely environmentally friendly,” Ahiablame said.

Studies will begin this year in a lab setting. It will be two to three years before they move to the field.

The study’s first step is to learn how much of the nutrients the beads can absorb. There are many other questions after that: How will the water-soluble beads retain their form? At what rate should they be applied to field when it comes time to reuse the fertilizer? How long will it take them to release nutrients in the field?

The professors are looking forward to finding out.

“We really see a bright future for research in this area,” Janaswamy said.

Read more from Tri-State Neighbor

"LONDON (ICIS)--Participants in the fertilizer market are still reeling days after a ban was imposed by Turkey on all fertilizers containing nitrates, with many calling the move a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the government.

"I am mad about the decision. This means no import as well, at least till further notice. For ammonium nitrate, I can understand the ban [AN is explosive]. But for calcium ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, they [the ministry] really do not know what they have done," a Turkish supplier said.

On 8 June, the Ministry Of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Interior (security affairs) banned the sale or distribution of ammonium nitrate (AN), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) and potassium nitrate with immediate effect.

The move comes following several car bomb attacks in Turkey this year amid fears AN can be used to make explosives. There is confusion surrounding the ban on CAN since it is not an explosive.

What has upset the industry in Turkey and outside is that the ban was introduced out of the blue without any consultations. The government has banned all fertilizers containing nitrates without determining if the fertilizer is explosive or not.

The annual market for AN and CAN in Turkey is around 2m tonnes. The country also has a large domestic industry based on AN and CAN fertilizers. As for potassium nitrate, Turkey has no production domestically. It imports potassium nitrate from Israel or Jordan."

Read more from ICIS.

Contributed by Dr. Thomas Jensen, Director, IPNI North American Program

Don’t forget the weather experienced during a crop year has the greatest effect on crop yields. Crops need sunlight, warmth, moisture, and nutrients to grow. When crops are grown under rain fed conditions, the only need we can supplement is nutrients by adding fertilizers and livestock manures as appropriate. 

Access to irrigation allows addition of water if moisture is in short supply, but we can’t do much if rainfall is excessive. The reality is that farmers are at the mercy of the weather. Most of the time the weather is conducive to reasonably good crop production, but sometimes we receive insufficient moisture, and or warmth, and crop yields are poor. 

In contrast there are those extraordinary crop years when all the crop needs are supplied in just the right combination. For example, 2013 was an example of one of those extraordinary crop years, as experienced in the Western

Canadian Prairie provinces.  In Alberta the average yield of all wheat types was over 58 bu/A. This is the highest average wheat yield experienced from 1962 through to 2013. The average for the previous 9 crop years, 2004 through 2012, was just over 45 bu/A, so considering the past 10 years the 2013 crop year was 29% higher yielding than the average of the previous 9 years. 

Read full version here.

"Some experts believe the wildfires at Fort McMurray suggest we should become accustomed to major disasters that may be linked to the long-term effects of climate change. But the stakes are different in the Prairies. According to a recent study from the University of Winnipeg, the Prairie region represents a unique case around the world.

The study reports that the Canadian Prairies could be the most affected area in the world over the next few decades. Jeopardizing our breadbasket makes climate change the most serious threat to our food security.

Learning that climate change will affect agriculture is not overly surprising, but the expected pace is jaw-dropping. The Manitoba-based report suggests that summers in the Prairies will become hotter and longer. Using a Prairie Climate Atlas, a group of scientists predicted that over the next 50 to 60 years the climate picture is not pretty. For example, the atlas predicts Winnipeg could see 46 days a year of temperatures over 30 C, a frequency which is four times what the city experiences now. Currently, Winnipeg experiences 11 days of 30 C weather on average a year. For Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon the number could grow up to seven times current averages.

These are desert-like temperatures, similar to what one finds in Texas, or even in Mexico. And yes, fire-stricken Fort McMurray is likely to experience warmer and dryer weather in the future.

These are staggering statistics. More heat and less moisture will compromise our ability to grow our agrifood economy. But also, other than farmers, reports on climate change suggest that the most vulnerable to climate change include people and families with less means and indigenous communities. Food will likely become less affordable and the ability for some remote regions to grow food will be negatively affected."

Read more from The Globe and Mail.