Growing a large amount of food that is both safe to eat and profitable to sell is no easy task. To make it easier, many farmers resort to human-made fertilizers that, despite harmful impacts, can often juice up their crop yield.
What if there was a way to safely grow healthy food in large quantities? Well, research shows that natural fertilizer alternatives are out there — and they work better than expected, according to Anthropocene Magazine.
The study, conducted by a team at the University of Ferrara in Italy, examined how well tomato plants grew when treated with these biofertilizers and biostimulants. The researchers tested two types of microbial biofertilizers alongside a control group, then applied two concentrations of an algae-based biostimulant with a control group.
The plants treated with a mycorrhizae-forming fungus and bacteria grew the biggest, had the strongest roots, and produced the largest and sweetest tomatoes. This group demonstrated improved outcomes when treated with a higher concentration of biostimulant, producing more tomatoes per vine and redder and more marketable tomatoes.
The full study is published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. It's not the first to track the positive outcomes of using natural fertilizers, but it joins a growing chorus of scientific research that supports a transition away from synthetic crop boosters, Anthropocene Magazine reported.
The results also suggest that going natural is a better economic move for farmers. They can avoid the more expensive fertilizer brands, all while their crops grow healthier, bigger, and more resilient against extreme weather. Plus, the process of making non-natural fertilizer is emissions-heavy, so curbing how much has to get made is another win.
"We were fascinated by the idea that an environmentally-friendly approach like this could produce such strong results," the scientists said, per Anthropocene Magazine.
"Each study that improves the knowledge on crop growth and production [is] a step toward the goals of sustainability," they added.
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