max facts
Qatar Development Bank Boosts Home
Farming Using Hydroponics
The Qatar Development Bank (QDB) will spearhead
a major initiative aimed at achieving self-sufficiency
in food production, especially vegetables and
fruits, among the Middle Eastern country’s general
population. The plan calls for the QDB to provide
all needful support and training in home-farming to
produce vegetables and fruits within the backyards
of citizens’ homes and villas using hydroponics.
“For achieving self-sufficiency in terms of food
production, we now have a new programme to promote
home-farming, which is going to be a major initiative
towards self-sufficiency. This is in addition to our focus to
support local farmers to boost their output,” says Khalid Abdulla
Al Mana, executive director for business finance at QDB.
—thepeninsulaquatar.com
New, Previously Unknown Source
of Global Nitrogen Unearthed
A new study shows that nitrogen (available to plants)
doesn’t just come from the atmosphere, as previously
believed in scientific circles. The University of California,
Davis (UC Davis) study indicates more than a quarter of
that nitrogen comes from Earth’s bedrock. The study,
published recently in the journal Science, found that up
to 26 per cent of the nitrogen in natural ecosystems is
sourced from rocks, with the remaining fraction from the
atmosphere. The discovery might improve climate change
projections, which rely on understanding the carbon cycle.
This new nitrogen source could also feed the carbon cycle
on land, allowing ecosystems to pull more emissions from
the atmosphere. “Our study shows nitrogen weathering is
a globally significant source of nutrition to soils and
ecosystems worldwide,” says co-lead author Ben Houlton,
a professor in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and
Water Resources. “We think this nitrogen may allow forests
and grasslands to sequester more
fossil fuel CO 2 emissions
than previously thought.”
—phys.org
Norwegian Doomsday Seed Vault
Gets Massive Upgrade
Ten years after building a concrete vault to safeguard 900,000
of the world’s seed samples, the Norwegian government is
doling out $12.7 million to upgrade the facility. The Svalbard
Global Seed Vault was built to safeguard the world’s food
supply in case of war, climate change, or natural disaster.
The vault is basically a thumb drive for the world’s crops. It
provides a potential backup for countries whose crop supplies
are down and gives them a way to rebuild what’s been lost
or destroyed. The money from the Norwegian government
will go towards building a concrete access tunnel as well as a
service building to house emergency power
and refrigeration units. Other electrical
equipment will also be installed.
Recent indications show
even this well-built vault may
not be immune to the ebbs
and flows of the world’s
climate, as it was built
a decade ago. In
October 2016, the
area surrounding
the seed vault
was subject to
temperatures so
unseasonably high that
the permafrost a