Insights
BNI trait could improve nitrogen
A new report describes certain plants that possess a trait known as biological nitri cation inhibition( BNI). �e trait allows the plants to suppress the loss of nitrogen( N) from the soil and improve the efficiency of its uptake and use by themselves and other plants. authors, who form part of a new BNI research consortium, propose transferring the BNI trait from those plants to critical food and feed crops, such as wheat, sorghum and Brachiaria range grasses, in order to boost crop productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“ Nearly a �h of the world ' s fertiliser, for example, is deployed each year to grow wheat and the crop only uses about 30 % of
May- June 2017 the nitrogen applied,” according to Guntur Subbarao, a researcher with Japan ' s International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences( JIRCAS) and lead author of the study.
“ If BNI research is successful, it would turn wheat, the world ' s most widely grown food crop, into a super nitrogen-efficient crop,” he said.“ Farmers would spend far less on fertiliser and nitrous oxide emissions from wheat farming could be reduced by as much as 30 %.”
Major source of emissions Excluding changes in land use such as deforestation, annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture each year are
FARMERS
[ 24 ] REVIEW AFRICA equivalent to as much as 5.8-billion tons of carbon dioxide( CO2), or 11 % of the total emissions from human activity( Smith et al. 2014).
Nitrogen fertilisers are a major source of agricultural emissions. About 70 % of nitrogen applied to crops in fertilisers is either washed away or ushed into the air as nitrous oxide( N2O), a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2.
“ �e most widely grown crop on the planet, wheat is a major nitrogen user and N2O emitter,” said Hans Braun, director of the global wheat program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center( CIMMYT).“ BNI technology is one of
www. farmersreviewafrica. com