Fertilizer technology continues to expand and offer new opportunities to provide better-quality products. This technology, including the use of biofertilizers and microbial inoculants, is helping to improve the industry in numerous ways. It promotes healthier soil, increases crop yields, and improves crop nutrition.
The move towards better crop growth is critical globally but is specific and important in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), these technologies are critical to enhancing the domestic food supply. Urban farming systems in place (and those being adopted to the region’s specific conditions) are enabling better domestic production of higher quality food, including food with higher nutritional value.
Fertilizers have long been critical components in supporting crop growth and development. They add necessary nutrients to the soil to encourage healthier growth rates, more product yield, and better overall protection of soil health.
Critically, in locations like the UAE, a heavy reliance on imported food makes it challenging to meet nutritional requirements. Yet, technological change, including urban farming systems, has the power to revolutionize food security and sustainability within the region.
Understanding the Challenges to Food Security in UAE
Why invest in a seemingly simple tool such as fertilizer to improve soil quality? The UAE’s unique challenges make it critically important for farmers to make the very best use of every resource possible. AgTech, including fertilizer technology, is making that possible.
The National Food Security Strategy 2051 lies behind the exponential growth of this industry in recent years. This local agenda aims to recognize the challenges in the region, such as very limited arable land and a harsh climate that has, for centuries, made growing crops nearly impossible.
Today, thanks to the support of innovative services and consultancy, this industry in the UAE is becoming a world leader in innovative technologies. Quite a bit of the focus in this industry is on vertical farming, aquaculture, and hydroponics. However, a deeper look shows how the industry is applying very specific technology – including fertilizer technology – to see phenomenal improvement.
Advancements in Fertilizer Technology: Implementing What’s Working Into the UAE
For organizations within the UAE, incorporating fertilizer technology to improve food nutrition is critical. It is a less talked-about strategy for innovation, but consider how it is improving food nutrition worldwide and recognize that these same benefits apply to UAE's unique opportunities as well.
For more than a century, fertilizer technology has developed as a method for improving soil nutrient levels. Most often, this is done by adding mineral deposits to soil composition. Current efforts in the European Union to reduce the use of fossil fuels spurred the need to look for new methods to improve agricultural yields while still protecting the environment.
While traditional methods of fertilizers work, they may not make the best use of the available resources. With advanced fertilizer technologies like the following, significant improvement is rapidly improving the agricultural industry.
Biological Fertilizers and Soil Health
Biological fertilizers, often referred to as biofertilizers, contain numerous microorganisms that improve plant nutrient uptake. This enables plants to gain more readily available nutrients faster, supporting growth rates.
More importantly, the use of biological fertilizers enhances soil health by reducing numerous plant pathogens that typically interfere with crop success. Biofertilizers enable agriculturalists to reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides while improving output.
Precision Agriculture and Fertilizer Application
One area where the UAE is standing out in innovative technologies is precision agriculture, the process of utilizing innovative sensors to monitor conditions, such as in urban and vertical farming opportunities, where conditions are not naturally ideal for the growth of nutritionally valuable food.
Precision agriculture utilizes a variety of technologies to enhance accuracy and proper timing to deliver exactly what a crop needs to thrive. It uses data analytics, remote sensing technology, and automated systems to create the ideal environment, optimizing the nutrients provided throughout the growing season.
As one of the most important innovations in fertilizer management, precision agriculture involves a number of tools that work together to make fertilization decisions, including:
- Soil sensors
- GPS technology
- Drones
These allow for very precise application of fertilizers and nutrient solutions. The process also enables the targeted application of fertilizers, which ensures the crops that need them get them. Precision agriculture works to fertilize waste and minimize any negative environmental impact. Utilizing agriculture consulting makes it possible to hone the specific technology and applications used to achieve the best possible outcome. By incorporating consulting services, it’s possible for all members of the UAE’s innovative food sector to apply each of these fertilizer technologies to their current operations.
Nutrient-Specific Innovations
Today, a growing problem is a lack of nutrition in food. Fertilizers can be utilized to enhance the nutrient levels within crops, aiding in reducing nutritional deficiencies in people.
For example, new products that feature a biostimulant work to encourage crops to uptake more of the micronutrients in the soil. This could increase, for example, the amount of zinc and manganese in the plant, thus transferring those benefits directly to the people who consume those foods.
One company, has designed a biostimulant capable of adding more protein content to wheat, thus helping those who need more protein to get it from a natural source.
There are numerous examples of nutrient-improvement innovation in UAE’s current environment. In Dubai, one example of nutrition-focused innovation as it has adopted a plant nutrition solution – more than 400 NPK grades of water-soluble, granular, suspension, and liquid fertilizers. These products support not only growth but also the growth of nutrient-dense food products.
Digital Tools and Fertilizer Management
Digital tools provide farmers with more insight into what is happening at various points in their crops. The utilization of geo-referencing, for example, enables very precise soil diagnostic insights, allowing farmers to target specific nutrient needs in specific areas without overusing or underusing resources. At the same time, these tools can also protect watersheds and reduce emissions.
A secondary example is that of nitrogen sensors. Placed on tractors, they measure the amount of nitrogen the crop needs as the tractor moves over the field. The fertilizer application rate is then adjusted in real time to provide a precise application that reduces wasted resources.
Future Trends and Research Directions
More decisive, highly specialized solutions are always beneficial to the industry. With more organizations turning to precise crop production management, there is increasing pressure to "get it just right." With the support of agriculture consultancy services, it becomes possible to choose the best innovations to apply to any specific farm need, giving the best return on investment possible.
Connectivity will continue to play an effective role in improving fertilizer technology, including crop monitoring. The use of IoT and 5GT enabled improved soil quality for farms, reduced farm equipment costs, and improved revenue for organizations.
Research continues to provide opportunities to enhance fertilizer technologies to enable more efficacy, safety, and reduced environmental impact. Enhanced-efficiency fertilizers will continue to develop, but a more robust and efficient strategy for evaluating efficiency is needed.
Conclusion: What the Future Holds
In the UAE, specifically, the exceptional growth towards creating nutrient-dense food has never been more important. Food scarcity in the region has long been limited due to the intense climate. Yet, fertilizer technology has the ability to change that. From companies that are already implementing these changes to opportunities being used globally that could be applicable to supporting innovative growth in the UAE, now is the ideal time for change.
With consultancy services, UAE's farmers, from vertical farmers to aqua cultivation experts, can further improve the quality of food produced with the help of fertilizer technology.
