Under the Farming Innovation Programme, Defra has funded a £1m project to develop a foliar photocatalyst-and-endophyte prototype that will help cereal and oilseed crops fix nitrogen.
Crop Intellect will head up the project, alongside the UK Agri-Tech Centre, Dyson Farming, Barworth Research, the Allerton Project and the University of Lincoln.
“Known as R-Leaf, the photocatalyst is a specially processed titanium dioxide that uses daylight to capture and convert nitrogen oxides (NOx), known air pollutants, directly into crop-usable nitrates,” says Dr Apostolos Papadopoulos, founder of Crop Intellect and the project’s lead partner as R-Leaf developer and IP holder.
“These small but continuous doses of nitrate add up to an average of 50kg N/ha during the growing season,” he explains. “Extensive independent trials have demonstrated R-Leaf’s positive impact on crop productivity, with a 6% yield increase seen in cereals. Data also shows that R-Leaf can decrease the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilisers by up to 25%.”
“In addition to converting pollutants (NOx) into nitrates, R-Leaf also breaks down nitrous oxide (N₂O), a damaging greenhouse gas (GHG) known to be 265 times more potent than CO₂, into benign nitrogen and oxygen.”
Farmers would be able to use the technology to reduce net GHG emissions. The estimated effect of R-Leaf N2O is 5.4t of CO2 capture per hectare, per year.
Recent experiments have identified an opportunity to combine photocatalyst technology with endophytes. These are certain species of bacteria that form symbiotic relationships with plants. Nitrogen-fixing endophytes capture atmospheric nitrogen, converting it into ammonia for supply to the plant, in exchange for organic carbon and other nutrients.
“When we used these two technologies together, in a ‘farm standard’ crop of wheat, we found what we believe to be a synergistic effect, with a 5% yield increase over and above the individual applications,” Dr Papadopoulos reveals.
“Our estimation is that by combining R-Leaf with an appropriate endophyte, we can reduce nitrogen usage in wheat by 50%. That’s potentially a £100/ha profit for a UK grower,” he says.
The project will last two years.