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A revolution in food and farming

Start the Week

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Soil Ecology and Fertilization

When a root hair breaks into a lump of soil, the plant releases these very complex chemicals which is its language. And how are those biological structures threatened by conventional methods of farming? You suggest they are. Well, so it turns out that a soil fertility is as much a property of its bioloy as it is of its chemistry. So when you saturate the soil with fertilizer, for instance, that can sometimes, paradoxically, cause the entire soil structure to collapse. But if we can turn that round and say, right, by understanding this biology much better,. we could actually minimize our inputs while still producing high yields of crops - that's now become the holy grail.

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