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
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[ 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
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