Environmental Impact of Chemical Fertilizers vs. Biofertilizers
Many farmers and agribusinesses rely on chemical fertilizers for plant growth. However, these fertilizers have an enormous environmental cost to wildlife, ecosystems, and humans.
Eliminating chemical fertilizers completely from your operation may not be tenable, but one way to lower their negative environmental impact is to combine them with biofertilizers, like BioPhos+ from CoastBio. Integrating chemical fertilizers with PSB can reduce your need for chemical fertilizer by up to 50% without negatively affecting crop yields. This approach supports sustainable farming practices and helps protect our environment.
Negative Effects of Chemical Fertilizers on the Environment
Fertilizers contain essential macronutrients crops need to grow: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, known collectively as NPK, which are all found naturally in soil and organic matter. So, when it includes nutrients vital for plant growth, how can fertilizer use be detrimental to the environment?
It boils down to a problem of too much of a good thing.
While phosphate naturally exists in soil, only about .1% of it is available for plant use. This means that–especially for commercial farming–farmers need to add additional phosphorus to guarantee plant growth, leading to the application of chemical phosphate fertilizers. However, an estimated 80% of phosphorous is lost or wasted, seeping into groundwater, contaminating nearby water sources, and creating imbalances in natural resources.
Phosphorus runoff can lead to “dead zones” by encouraging the excessive growth of aquatic plants, like plankton. This process, known as eutrophication, occurs when nutrient overloads spur rapid plant growth. When the excess plants die, the decomposition process takes up valuable oxygen that fish and other marine wildlife need for survival, leading to natural imbalances in the ecosystem ranging from small streams to larger systems like the Mississippi Delta.
The Earth is already experiencing land and freshwater ecosystem losses at twice the rate of the 20th century. The combination of mineral loss and environmental fallout costs farmers, factory owners, fishermen, and others an average of $265 billion annually. Fertilizers also harm humans, including the potential for us to drink contaminated water that can cause significant health issues and degraded quality of life as recreational waters become more polluted and less accessible.
Importance of Organic Fertilizer for Plant Growth and Environmental
Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for helping plants grow, so the key isn’t eliminating it but finding more sustainable methods to prevent waste and runoff.
One solution is . Biofertilizers increase the amount of soluble phosphorous available to plants by transforming insoluble phosphorous in soil into a soluble form. This inoculation can help plants grow without relying so heavily on chemical fertilizers.
BioPhos+ contains phosphate solubilizing microorganisms, also called PSMs. These helpful microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, break down hard-to-dissolve phosphate chemicals into forms that plants can easily absorb and use. They take phosphorus already in the soil but inaccessible to plants and transform it into a bio-available form that helps plants solubilize it for growth. All this without contributing to excess phosphate waste and runoff.
How BioFertilizer Can Positively Impact the Environment
The Earth is experiencing more severe environmental events, such as droughts, which can affect plant growth and even impact how pests and pathogens act around plants. Additionally, the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can reduce the amount of nitrogen in crops, changing the composition of weed flora accompanying crops.
Here are some ways phosphorous solubilizing bacteria and fungi in CoastBio’s BioPhos+ fertilizer blend can improve plant growth despite environmental fluctuations.
Drought
Water is essential for crop growth. Soil in areas with low annual rainfall (such as farms in arid and semiarid climates) is particularly worrisome. Low moisture can lead to stressed plants that cannot transport water and other nutrients required for growth.
One solution is to add bacteria and fungi, such as Bacillus and Paenicillium (both found in our BioPhos+ fertilizer blend), to the soil.
Bacillus is a drought-tolerant bacteria that can increase the population of bacteria at the root to stimulate the growth of the crop and the essential bacteria that nurture it. It effectively alters plant metabolism to improve plant growth in stressed environments, including those enduring a drought.
Likewise, Paenicillium is a common fungus that can increase a plant’s tolerance to stresses such as drought, cold, and heavy metals. The combination of Bacillus and Paenicillium can lead to increased plant growth in all environments, including particularly challenging ones.
Natural pest control and plant protection
While chemical agents can effectively protect plants from pests, bacterial agents are a more environmentally friendly method. Some chemicals have been banned because of their detrimental effects on the ecosystem surrounding plant growth, including causing a decline in insects that help plants grow, like honey bees. Additionally, the prolonged use of chemical treatments can build up deposits in the soil and increase plant pathogens’ resistance to them.
In contrast, phosphorous solubilizing bacteria can act as natural pest control agents without harming the environment or the plant’s ecosystem.
Preventing Disease and Fungal Growth
Some significant challenges associated with maintaining plant health and yield in agriculture are plant-disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes. Applying microorganisms identified as exhibiting antibacterial and antifungal properties, like those mentioned here, can help control plant diseases and improve plant growth without negatively impacting the environment.
Along with mitigating plant disease, phosphorous solubilizing bacteria can help establish healthy populations of bacteria, like Bacillus, that can continue to protect plants and nurture the soil without negatively affecting other bacterial populations. Inoculating the soil with good bacteria has also been found to control nematode populations, including root-knot nematodes, which have been recorded as being among the most damaging nematodes, covering nearly 5500 plant species.
Get Started with BioPhos+
The adverse effects of chemical fertilizers cannot be overstated. Combining them with biofertilizers, like BioPhos+, can help lower the amount of chemical fertilizers used worldwide.
Applying biofertilizer repeatedly can create a healthy soil environment that continues to help plants grow and control pests. This can lead to better yields and healthier plants in the long term, making the environment safer for our ecosystem and wildlife.
Request a quote to learn more about how BioPhos+ can benefit your business.
Also review our blog article about “How Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria in BioPhos+ Can Improve Plant Growth and Health”
Learn more about the science behind how these powerful bacteria and fungi work together in our latest white paper. https://coastbio.com/white-papers/