Solutions for sustainable green agriculture

Helps to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer by 20-30%

According to statistics, in 2019, our country has more than 14.7 million hectares of agricultural land, of which the area planted with food crops is 8,462 million hectares, industrial crops is 2.7 million hectares, and 1,067 million hectares are planted with trees. eat fruit. It is estimated that annually, the whole country uses over 10 million tons of fertilizers of all kinds, of which the structure of nitrogen fertilizer use is very high (2.2 million tons of urea, not to mention the large amount of nitrogen fertilizers contained in DAP and NPK fertilizers).

However, the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer (N) is very low, only about 45-50%, while 50-55% of nitrogen is equivalent to 1.8 million tons of Urea fertilizer or about 606 million USD (calculated at import prices) applied to the soil but not yet used by the plants. In addition to the cause of erosion, leaching has lost a significant amount of N, most of the nitrogen fertilizer is lost in the form of NH3 and nitrogen oxides, including N2O, a dangerous greenhouse gas that causes the global warming.

Currently, scientists around the world are very interested in solutions to help reduce nitrogen loss and improve the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer use. Among the researches to help reduce nitrogen loss such as coating Urea by formaldehyde, sulfur... one of the most advanced technologies is the inhibitor of urea hydrolysis reaction caused by urease yeast. Recently, Binh Dien Fertilizer Joint Stock Company cooperated with scientists of Koch Corporation (USA) to widely apply Agrotain coated Urea product with the trade name Urea 46A+ (Golden-N®) or golden nitrogen. Buffalo head 46A+, can reduce from 20% to 30% of nitrogen fertilizer.

So, what is Agrotain? Agrotain is the trade name of the active ingredient N (n-Butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT), which inhibits the activity of urease enzyme for up to 14 days, thus limiting the conversion of nitrogen from urea into urea after ammonia fertilization.

The test results showed that adding only a very small amount of Agrotain to fertilizer had the effect of not only increasing the yield of the crop but also contributing to saving a very significant amount of N. When Urea is applied to the soil, the enzyme Urease breaks down the Urea molecule into two Ammonia molecules through hydrolysis. This process occurs within a few days of application. Research results on rice showed that: without Agrotain treatment, the amount of nitrogen was lost about 57% within 15 days after application, when treated with Agrotain, the amount of N evaporated was only 19%, remaining over 38%N is easily digestible for rice use.

Reduce CO2, N2O emissions

Research results of 8 experiments on maize and 8 experiments on rice carried out in provinces of China in 2017-2018 show that, when using Urea mixed with Agrotain (0.2%) increases corn yield 9%, and rice yield 7%; when designing to reduce the rate of urea application, in 2/8 experiments using 90%N (reducing 10%N) and 6/8 experiments using 80%N (reducing 20%N) both gave the same yield or higher than the control with 100% N (without Agrotain treatment).

In Vietnam, The Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted a study on the effects of Buffalo Head 46A+ on greenhouse gas emissions in rice fields in Nam Dinh province in the 2014 and spring 2015 seasons. The results show that, when Application of Buffalo head 46A+ with an amount equivalent to 75% of the control did not reduce rice yield and could reduce 1.4-31.4% CH4 and 6.2- 42.7% N2O emissions in the range experiment.

At the international competition on rice production technology called "Sustainable rice production and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions Agresults" organized by the Dutch international organization in Thai Binh province, the first fertilizer application option Rice buffalo TE 1 and Rice TE Buffalo 2 using Agrotain coated with urea to fertilize BC15 rice in the 2019 crop helped reduce CO2 by 1,1102 tons/ha (11.66% decrease) compared to the conventional control of farmers.

Source: Thao Anh/ daibieunhandan.vn