Abstract
AimsThe recent increases in food prices caused by the corresponding increases in fertilizer costs have highlighted the demand for reducing the overuse of fertilizers in industrial agriculture. There has been increasing interest in developing plant root-targeted delivery (RTD) of fertilizers in order to address the problem of inefficient fertilizer use. The aim of this study is to develop a low cost controlled release device to deliver fertilizers to plant roots and thereby increase fertilizer use efficiency.MethodsThe Root Targeted Delivery Vehicle (RTDV) is formed by dissolving Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) chains in water, mixing it with liquid fertilizer and crosslinking using iron and calcium salts. Basic measurements quantifying nutrient release and green house growth trials were carried out to evaluate fertilizer use efficiency on wheat growing in nutrient depleted soil media.ResultsGrowing wheat in nutrient depleted media showed that the RTDV permits a 78% reduction in the amount of fertilizer needed to achieve similar levels of plant yield in these conditions. Quantifying the losses associated with the RTDV synthesis showed that optimizing manufacturing could possibly increase this value as high as 94%. Furthermore, the delivery device showed a similar lifetime in soil to the plant’s growth cycle, delivering fertilizer over the course of the plant’s growth before removal from soil by degradation.ConclusionsThese results illustrate the importance of fertilizer delivery in facilitating absorption and may have potential to vastly increase the use efficiency of fertilizers in soil, resulting in a significant reduction of costs and environmental damage. With more in depth study to quantify the fertilizer release and refine the device, there is great potential for the use of the RTDV as an effective means to increase fertilizer use efficiency in agriculture.
Highlights
Fertilizer usage has a critical impact on all aspects of agriculture, either directly or indirectly, by altering the cost of growing and the relative profitability of crops
Root Targeted Delivery Vehicle (RTDV) synthesis and release testing The controlled release device is made through ionic gelation of Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) using iron and calcium salts
Overall, the RTDVs are a promising platform for increasing the fertilizer use efficiency of agricultural crops
Summary
Fertilizer usage has a critical impact on all aspects of agriculture, either directly or indirectly, by altering the cost of growing and the relative profitability of crops. Use of Controlled Release Fertilizers (CRF) allows the release of nutrients to be better matched with the life cycle of the plant (Malhi et al 2010, Shaviv and Mikkelsen 1993) in order to increase the efficiency of nutrient uptake by plants. The commercially available CRF are vulnerable to changes in the soil types, moisture contents and other factors which can affect the release rate (Chen et al 2008). These complications can lead to fertilizer release not being synchronized with plant demand and may create situations where the plants are starved of nutrients or unable to use the fertilizer released (Gumbo et al 2008)
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