Nitrogen fertilizer

Nitrogen fertilizer project

The fertilizer industry is the leading carbon dioxide emitter totaling to a release of 830 megatons of carbon dioxide per year in the atmosphere, which is 42% of the total industrial process emissions. Globally, farmers apply 135 kilograms of fertilizers, per hectare.  In Africa, farmers apply 17 kilograms per hectare, while a Ugandan farmer applies just 1.3kilograms per hectare which is about 2.5 acres. Farmers need to increase productivity and production through use of fertilizers. Scientists at MUZARDI therefore developed a nitrogen fertilizer to help resource poor farmers ensure food security.  The fertilizer is environmentally friendly, because it does not give off carbon dioxide which is one of factors responsible for global warming.

This nitrogen fertilizer is developed through tapping nitrogen from the atmosphere using solar energy and is developed using a technology called Plasma assisted nitrogen fixation, which uses less energy for the production of fertilizers. This fertilizer has been tested on maize, coffee, and lettuce and results so far reveal that where the nitrogen was used, the plants are performing better than ammonium nitrate, urea and NPK. The release of this nitrogen fertilizer will help reduce the cost of fertilizers for smallholder farmers. Researchers noted that the cost of fertilizers is very high hence affecting productivity.

Maize plants under the Nitrogen fertilizer experiment