Are controlled-release, bio-based fertilisers the future of farming?

What’s happening? Anuvia Plant Nutrients has secured $103m in Series C funding. The Florida-based agtech company, which produces bio-based fertilisers, will put the funding towards its Plant City facility in Florida. Anuvia is also looking to expand internationally, while embarking on partnerships and undertaking research and development activities. The firm’s nitrogen sulfur SymTRX product can be used to cultivate most crops and has been shown to reduce greenhouse gases by up to 32%. (Crunchbase)

Why does this matter? Anuvia’s product could be an alternative to synthetic fertilisers which are deployed excessively in modern agricultural systems, often in quantities where plants can no longer absorb them. This is causing pollution of waterways, poisoning drinking supplies and even harming marine biodiversity downstream. It is also depleting global reserves of essential nutrients like phosphate and causing an almost universal growth in nitrogen oxide emissions – which have 300 times the climate impact of CO2 – from agriculture.

What’s different about Anuvia’s product? Anuvia’s slow-release fertilisers reduce the loss of nutrients to leaching (loss through soils) and volatilisation (loss to the atmosphere). The product can be used in conjunction with most crops.

Anuvia has partnered with agricultural company Smithfield, which sells digested solids – or digestate – from its hog waste biogas production as an input for the former’s fertilisers. By harnessing often under-utilised organic waste streams, Anuvia’s biofertilisers can turn environmental liabilities like food waste and animal excrement into a circular, profitable product.

How it works (brace yourself, we’re about to get science-y) – The Organic Matrix product uses organic material as a “docking site” for electrostatically charged ions of nutrients ammonium, potassium, sulfate and phosphate. Through a two-stage process, Anuvia initially binds phosphorus and sulfate closely with the organic material before subsequently introducing nitrogen. This means when applied to the soil, most nutrients can be absorbed immediately, while the remaining 35% is released more slowly.

These types of controlled-release fertilisers are increasingly gaining traction. Nutrient-rich organic fertilisers like digestate and compost, plus biofertilisers – composed of microbial cultures which fixate atmospheric nitrogen and return it to the soil – add to a portfolio of alternatives to today’s fertilisers.

Interest is also growing in green ammonia which can be manufactured using hydrogen produced with renewable electricity and water. Ammonia producers are developing several projects that would pave the way for climate-friendly fertiliser production. This will not prevent chemical infiltration of the environment, however.

Paradigm shift – Another option is to move away from chemically-dependent agriculture and instead use regenerative practices, which promote soil health and biodiversity. This broad term also describes agricultural techniques including rotating crops or using cover crops out-of-season that restore organic carbon to the soil. There are doubts as to how affordable and scalable these techniques are, however.

Share This Post

You might also like

Oil and gas

Billions of tonnes of carbon to be emitted by 20 nations’ proposed oil and gas projects by 2050: report

What’s happening? The top 20 global oil and gas producers are poised to release 173 billion tonnes of carbon emissions ...

Read more

Sam Robinson
September 19, 2023

Avatar photo
Plastic

UNEP issues first draft of global treaty to cut plastic pollution

What’s happening? The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has published its first draft of a global treaty to end plastic pollution by ...

Read more

Nicola Watts
September 14, 2023

Avatar photo
Iceberg in water

As the ice melts in the Arctic, concerns grow over its exploitation

What’s happening? As the Arctic's drifting sea ice steadily diminishes, the area becomes more vulnerable to fishing, shipping, mining, and pollution. ...

Read more

Dillon Creedon
September 8, 2023