Saving the planet, one crop at a time.

Jean Kridl from Arcadia Biosciences came to present her seminar at Sacramento State titled “Nitrogen Use Efficient NERICA rice for Africa” to show how nitrogen can be used in soil to promote plant growth.

The nitrogen in the fertilizer increases the crop yield, said biochemistry professor Tom Savage, but it is also something that is increasing greenhouse gasses and increasing the eutrophication, which is the growth of algae on lakes and rivers. The algae then sinks to the bottom of the river and reduces the oxygen in the water killing fish and other water life.

“The technology Dr. Kridl described would enable a farmer to get the same increase in yield with less nitrogen fertilizer, thus reducing the environmental cost of the fertilizer,” said Savage.

Kridl said the fertilizer used on crops is a $60 billion fuel for agriculture and less than 50 percent of that is used on the plants. The rest of the nitrogen is used to contribute to pollution in the environment.

Cynthia Kellen-Yuen, organic chemistry professor at Sac State, said the nitrogen-based fertilizers used to grow enough food to feed the world come with a cost: the environment.

“Their modified grains grow equally as well as current grains using half the fertilizer of normal systems, which should therefore lessen the amount of toxins we release,” said Kellen-Yuen.

Kridl said the type of fertilizer Arcadia Biosciences is working on is a Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), which produces a higher yield while using less nitrogen.

“Agriculture is the number two industrial source of greenhouse gasses, although most believe it’s mostly from car emission,” said Kridl.

Kridl said nitrogen gasses are 300 times more potent for greenhouse gasses than carbon dioxide.

Arcadia Biosciences is testing the nitrogen-based fertilizer with a mixture of African rice and Chinese rice, both of which grow above the ground unlike traditional types that grow in paddies.

The rice is being tested in Africa because it does not do well in California during the winter. It is tested to see if it works more efficiently than what is currently being used for agriculture, as well as how to help reduce greenhouse gasses, said Kridl.