Lancaster University plant scientists are helping to test the effectiveness of an innovative new range of sustainable fertilisers being developed by a North West business.
Stopford Ltd, in partnership with academic, industrial and farming collaborators, has been awarded funding from Defra's Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) in Nutrient Management to scale-up production of its 'Nutragy' sustainable fertiliser technology.
Stopford Ltd describes its Nutragy technology as an eco-friendly process, that upgrades low-value residues from the bioenergy industry into high-value fertiliser products, providing a circular approach to crop nutrition.
With a chemical and physical specification akin to that of mineral fertilisers which are energy intensive to produce, Stopford Ltd says Nutragy has the potential for use as a low-carbon alternative.
This innovation project will establish a demonstration-scale Nutragy manufacturing facility alongside a biogas plant, with further Nutragy crop efficacy trials to be conducted in co-located polytunnels.
The collaborative project will see the technology's inventor Dr Ben Herbert, Director of Technology and Innovation at Stopford Ltd, which has offices at co-location space within Lancaster University's campus, work alongside colleagues from Lancaster University, Cockerham Green Energy Ltd, Recycled Crop Nutrients Ltd and Ralymi Dairy Ltd to fast-track the scale-up and exploitation of Nutragy.
Ian Dodd, Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Lancaster University, worked with Stopford Ltd on earlier greenhouse and farm trials of the technology behind Nutragy. The latest project will continue work with Stopford to test the effectiveness of different formulations of the fertiliser as well as providing agronomic advice.
Professor Dodd said: "In previous greenhouse-based pot trials with a range of crop species, Nutragy offered comparable or better plant growth than urea. This project's ambition of scaling-up manufacture allows us to evaluate Nutragy's performance over a typical crop rotation."
"Having worked with Stopford for several years it's exciting to continue this journey that brings the product closer to market."
Dr Ben Herbert, who is also a graduate of Lancaster University, said: "I am delighted that our Nutragy technology has been recognised by UKRI's and Defra's FIP Challenge as a groundbreaking technology to enhance the sustainability of food production, and I very much look forward to working with our project partners to achieve our mutual ambitions of enabling a truly circular approach to crop nutrition."
Chris Parry, CEO at Cockerham Green Energy added: "Nutragy presents a great opportunity to enhance the value of by-products from the bioenergy industry - with my farming background engaging in the production and distribution of sustainable fertiliser products has always been an ambition."
The FIP funding, which is a partnership with and delivered by Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, seeks to support the investigation of solutions that have the potential to improve sustainability, productivity and resilience of UK farming on a path to net-zero.
