AgroInsights- Regenerative Ag
Reducing Environmental Effects of Fertilizer Applications Since 1946
Wayne Becker, District Sales Manager for Oklahoma & Texas
Feeding the world has always created a significant environmental footprint. A growing global population and greater demand for food has caused agriculture to grow to the point that it is associated with 1/3 of all global land use and ~ 15% of all global greenhouse emissions. Increasing realization of these facts has stakeholders seeking ways to produce food with lower – or even positive – environmental and/or social impacts1.
NACHURS Fertilizer has been manufacturing and providing farming inputs that further that objective. They set the bar by creating the low-salt fertilizer industry in 1946! That year may very well have been the origin of regenerative farming for row-crop farmers in the United States.
At that time, NACHURS created a source of fertilizer with unique chemical properties allowing farmers to reduce the amount of fertilizer necessary to create crop response. Creating fertilizer with less burn and greater uptake allowed farmers the ability to change fertilizer placement. This increased nutrient use efficiency and farmer profitability.
NACHURS’ innovation in 1946 made it the original 4R nutrient stewardship company. Just over a decade ago, still prior to the national increase in interest for regenerative agriculture, NACHURS introduced Bio-K®. Bio-K® is a fertilizer source that improves soil health, stimulates ecosystem/plant health and resiliency, and simultaneously provides the most plant-available potassium on the market.
Bio-K is made by reacting a carbon source with a potassium source – thus making the final product:
1. A plant nutrient.
2. A soil health stimulant.
3. A plant health stimulant.
1. Newton P, Civita N, Frankel-Goldwater L, Bartel K and Johns C (2020) What Is Regenerative Agriculture? A Review of Scholar and Practitioner Definitions Based on Processes and Outcomes. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 4:577723. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2020.577723
2. Bücking H, Abubaker J, Govindarajulu M, Tala M, Pfeffer PE, Nagahashi G, Lammers P, Shachar-Hill Y. Root exudates stimulate the uptake and metabolism of organic carbon in germinating spores of Glomus intraradices. New Phytol. 2008;180(3):684-695. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02590.x. Epub 2008 Aug 5. PMID: 18694446.
3. Vinegar: A cheap and simple way to help plants fight drought (2017, June 26) retrieved 26 February 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2017-06-vinegar-cheap-simple-drought.html
Pictures Below-
Unique nutrient qualities of Bio-K vs. other potassium sources.
The carbon in Bio-K performs the same function as natural root exudates. It improves soil health by stimulating microorganisms and buffering nutrients, as shown in this simplified diagram of a natural soil system at work.
The carbon in Bio-K is known as acetate. This carbon is preferentially consumed by beneficial soil bacteria vs. glucose2.
Adapted from: Bucking et al. (2008), Root exudates stimulate the uptake and metabolism of organic carbon in germinating spores of Glomus intraradices.
The same carbon as that in Bio-K increased drought tolerance compared to other organic acids.
Credit: RIKEN3
