The development of biological fertilizers most need to solve the problem of high efficiency

A trip to the south has left Fan Bingquan deeply remembered. When passing through a vegetable field beside Taihu Lake, he was surprised to find that the land under his feet was so hard that even the footprints couldn't be stepped on, "just like a stone." He was surprised that land was degraded to such a serious degree that he had seen quite a few of them.

Fan Bingquan has been engaged in the research of new high-efficiency biofertilizers. He has long been dealing with the soil. He is currently a researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Agricultural Resources and Agricultural Division of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He said that the extensive use of chemical fertilizers is one of the important causes of land degradation. In addition, it will also lead to the exhaustion of China's phosphorus and potassium resources.

"The goal of developing bio-fertilizer is to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers so that the phosphorus and potassium resources can be used for a longer period of time, and then the country's food security will be guaranteed in the long term," said Fan Bingquan.

Fertilizer contribution rate is getting smaller

Fertilizer is considered a major invention of modern agriculture because it allows limited land to produce more food and feed an expanding population. In the 1970s, China began to use chemical fertilizers and tasted the sweetness of continuous increase in grain output. Fertilizer has become an essential input for agricultural farming in China.

Without fertilizer input, there is no guarantee of high grain yield. For China with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, the absence of high grain output means that food security is not in place. According to a rough calculation, if one person per day consumes 1 kilogram of grain, 1.4 billion people need 511 billion kilograms a year. "If there is no fertilizer, it is absolutely impossible to achieve this number." Fan Bingquan said that without fertilizer, the Chinese people cannot solve the problem of food.

This increase in fertilizer yield is significant, but agricultural production proves that it is necessary to repeat the application more frequently each year in order to maintain high productivity. Studies have suggested that the natural fertility of soils declines with the use of chemical fertilizers year after year. In order to maintain high yields each year, the application of chemical fertilizers must be increased, which leads to increased production costs and accelerates further degradation of the soil.

In the late 1990s, reports of serious degradation of farmland in the north, especially in the northwest, began to appear in newspapers. The degradation of black soil in the northeast is obvious to all. The original black soil layer is nearly one meter thick. Now it is 50 centimeters or even thinner. Some fertile grain fields become desertified land.

Fan Bingquan's example of his hometown in Hebei is obviously very vivid. When the contract responsibility system for joint production was implemented in the 1980s, the whole Hebei Province basically used the “Taishan No. 1” wheat seed, when the amount of chemical fertilizer used was not large, and 100 kg of superphosphate was used. One hundred pounds of ammonium bicarbonate and one hundred pounds of soybean cake served as the base fertilizer, and an additional amount of urine protein was added, and the yield per mu could reach 800 pounds. Now it is also producing 800 pounds per mu, but the amount of chemical fertilizer has increased exponentially.

The national total grain output also shows the same signs. In 1998, China’s grain output hit an all-time high record of 538 million tons. Over the past 10 years, the total grain output has basically fluctuated in this range, but fertilizer input has increased year by year. The contribution rate of chemical fertilizers is increasingly decreasing.

The extensive use of chemical fertilizers destroys the microbial environment of the soil, which in turn leads to pests and diseases. The main reason for pesticide pesticides exceeding the standard and heavy metals exceeding the standard is the decline in the metabolic function of soil. The imbalance of soil microbial diversity will trigger a vicious circle: If you do not improve the ecological environment of the soil and do not increase the function of the soil body, you need to invest more fertilizer in order to achieve the same yield.

What is more worrying is that large amounts of fertilizers need to consume large amounts of mineral resources such as phosphorus and potassium. Although China’s phosphorus reserves rank second in the world, the current methods of exploitation and utilization will be depleted in 60 years or even less. Phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen are three essential elements for plants. If there is no phosphorus and potassium, crop yield will be almost gone. This means that the future chemical fertilizers will continue to be used for a long time.

"For a long time, farmers have relied too much on chemical fertilizers," said Yang Xingming, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University and the secretary-general of the China Organic Fertilizer Industry Technical Innovation Strategic Alliance. He was interviewed by the "Scientific Times" on the telephone and said that this has led to the emergence of agricultural ecological problems and environmental problems.

Biofertilizer is considered an important solution. "The importance of bio-fertilizer lies in ensuring the long-term nature of food security." Fan Bingquan said that the goal of developing bio-fertilizer is to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers and reduce the total consumption of chemical fertilizers throughout the country so that the phosphorus and potassium resources can be used for a longer period of time. Go on, and then ensure long-term national food security.

Song Weiping, vice president of Beijing Dabei Agriculture Technology Group Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the "Scientific Times" that the development of biological fertilizer is no less important than biological breeding. In the face of the serious pollution caused by chemical fertilizer to the soil, he asked: “How can the best seeds grow if the land is polluted?”

Bio-fertilizer can reduce fertilizer use

In fact, China has paid attention to the research and application of biological fertilizers since the 1950s. The famous biofertilizer at that time was “5406” fungus fertilizer—using an actinomycete code-named “5406” and a certain amount of cake fertilizer or fertilizer.

An agricultural literature from Luoyang City, Henan Province, recorded that, beginning in 1973, the "5406" fungus fertilizer began to be used in most of the city's communes. The result was "cotton Mushi '5406', 125 kg of bacteria, and 10-15 kg of lint. , Wheat applies 125-150 kilograms per acre and wheat is increased by 22-75 kilograms per mu."

Biofertilizer is not complicated. It is a product containing living organisms of specific microorganisms. Through the life activities of the microorganisms contained therein, the supply of plant nutrients is increased or the growth of plants is promoted, the yield is improved, the quality of agricultural products is improved, and the agricultural ecological environment is improved.

According to Fan Bingquan, biofertilizer is divided into several different categories. “Different types of biofertilizers pursue different goals.” One of the main functions is to provide nutrients, and the other is mainly to convert nutrients.

Rhizobium is a good example of a biofertilizer that provides nutrients for crops. It is a type of gram-negative bacterium that symbiotically forms nodules with leguminous plants and converts nitrogen in the air to the ammonia nitrogen needed for the crop. Its advantage is that it can save a lot of nitrogen fertilizer. If it is selected to good strains, especially nitrogen-resistant repression of highly efficient nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the same yield can be achieved by using a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer or even no nitrogen fertilizer on legumes.

Another type of nitrogen-fixing microorganism is a combination of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. It fixes the molecular nitrogen in the air in the rhizosphere of the plant by its own nitrogen-fixing capacity. However, the combined nitrogen-fixing bacteria have a relatively small amount of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and cannot fully meet the needs of crops. Scientists around the world All hope for breakthroughs in the breeding of such strains of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, with particular emphasis on the breakthrough of high-efficiency ammonium-producing bacteria.

"If we can break through this technology, the use of nitrogen fertilizers in grass crops can be greatly reduced." Fan Bingquan said that this can save a lot of nitrogen fertilizer.

Biofertilizers for converting nutrients are related to phosphorus and potassium nutrients. Because the available phosphorus content in the soil is very low, phosphorus fertilizers are needed every year. Crops are dependent on phosphate fertilizers. Without phosphate fertilizers, there is no yield. Phosphorus-dissolving bio-fertilizer can convert insoluble phosphorus in soil into available phosphorus for plants. Potassium-resolving bio-fertilizer can release the hard-to-use potassium in soil for crop absorption and utilization.

Fan Bingquan said that the development and use of biofertilizers that dissolve phosphorus and release potassium can both increase the availability of insoluble phosphorus and potassium in the soil and increase the efficiency of the use of phosphate and potash fertilizers, significantly reducing the use of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, and extending China's The purpose of the use of phosphorus and potassium resources. Phosphorus and potassium resources can be used for a long time. Saving nitrogen fertilizer also saves energy and improves the environment. Saving phosphorus and potassium fertilizer resources, China's food security will be more secure.

Promote not to fool farmers

Like chemical fertilizers, biological fertilizers are also strategic resources. The strategic importance of biological fertilizers has been given high priority by the country. The "Decision of the State Council on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of Strategic Emerging Industries" issued by the State Council on October 18 pointed out that it is necessary to "promote the promotion of green agricultural biological products," and that biological fertilizer is one of the important products of green agricultural biological products.

According to an expert in the agricultural sector, bio-fertilizer is also a key component of bio-agriculture in the "12th Five-Year Plan" of the bio-industry.

Unlike the strategic significance of high-level government emphasis on bio-fertilizers, farmers engaged in agricultural production value bio-fertilizers more. In fact, bio-fertilizer has already entered the vision of farmers earlier, but it has experienced ups and downs in the promotion process.

"Because bio-fertilizer is a high-tech, farmers will doubt this." Yang Xingming thinks this is a problem facing the promotion of bio-fertilizer. In addition, farmers often use the concept of chemical fertilizers to understand biological fertilizers. "In terms of technical indicators, they are considered according to the concept of chemical fertilizers."

Fan Bingquan explained that in the absence of scientific propaganda and misguided, farmers think that using biological fertilizer can not use chemical fertilizers. When the output declines, “the farmers who are pursuing high yields will certainly not do it”. However, some companies and distributors have exaggerated the publicity of biological fertilizers. “We couldn’t replace chemical fertilizers, but we have chosen to replace them.”

“Now farmers know that bio-fertilizer is a good thing, but they must tell the farmers what they want to achieve. The function of each type of bio-fertilizer and what problems to solve should be thoroughly understood.” Fan Bingquan said, “If farmers do not buy us, there will be no market. There is no way for bio-fertilizer companies to survive."

Yang Xingming said that the actual products on the market are working well, but there are too many counterfeit and shoddy products. Some people even use ordinary organic fertilizers to make up bio-organic fertilizers. "The market is in urgent need of rectification, and the administrative department must put a good entrance."

The combination of these factors makes the promotion of biological fertilizers difficult. Yang Xingming believes that in the future, "we must increase demonstration applications so that farmers can get, see, and experience." He said: "Our successful experience is through experiments and demonstrations."

Yang Xingming joined the organic fertilizer research team of Nanjing Agricultural University, led by Shen Qirong, vice president of Nanjing Agricultural University in 2004. The research team developed a patent for “An Antagonistic Bacterium Against Crop Wilt Disease and Its Microbial Organic Fertilizer” in November 13 Rizang won the Twelfth China Patent Prize.

It has been reported that in the past five years, the patented technology has been applied to 32 million mu in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country. Farmers have increased their income by more than 10 billion yuan, resulting in huge economic and social benefits.

“As long as the field trials are done, the farmers see the effect and they will use it immediately,” Yang Xingming said.

Fan Bingquan said that China's biofertilizer production is about 5 million tons. Now there is a large demand for biological fertilizers, and there are also markets. However, the current contradiction is that farmers need high yields, and bio-fertilizer cannot solve the problem of high yields. “To tell our farmers, the rational use of biological fertilizers, especially with the rational use of chemical fertilizers, can not only solve the problems of increasing crop yield, but also reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and avoiding the waste of fertilizer resources.”

"So, the most important thing now is to solve the problem of high efficiency of biological fertilizers. The biological fertilizers can efficiently fix nitrogen, efficiently dissolve potassium, efficiently melt phosphorus, and promote efficient growth," says Fan Bingquan. If we can achieve these four aspects, The market is very broad.