Previous page: struvite crystals. Photo: Caio Inácio
Brazilian researchers are advancing a new technological route for phosphate fertilization based on struvite, a slow-release mineral fertilizer recovered from swine manure, in a development that could significantly reduce the country’s dependence on imported phosphorus inputs while strengthening circular agriculture practices.
Scientists from Embrapa Agrobiologia (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) reported that field trials with soybean crops demonstrated that struvite was capable of supplying up to 50 percent of phosphorus demand while maintaining yields at approximately 3,500 kg/ha – closely aligned with Brazil’s 2025 national soybean average of3,560 kg/ha under conventional fertilization systems.
The findings come at a strategic moment for Brazilian agriculture. The country currently depends on imports for roughly 75 percent of its phosphate fertilizer demand, exposing growers to international price volatility and geopolitical supply risks.
According to Caio de Teves Inácio, researcher at Embrapa Agrobiologia and coordinator of the study, the initiative goes beyond simply replacing conventional fertilizers.
“We are creating a new technological pathway for Brazilian agriculture, aligned with sustainability, autonomy, and innovation,” he said.
Turning livestock waste intohigh-value fertilizer Struvite – chemically known as magnesium ammonium phosphate – is produced through the chemical precipitation of nutrients recovered from swine effluents. The mineral contains approximately 12 percent phosphorus, five percent nitrogen, and 10 percent magnesium.
Its agronomic relevance lies in its low solubility and gradual nutrient release profile, characteristics that are particularly advantageous in tropical soils. In Brazil’s highly weathered soils, phosphorus from
conventional soluble fertilizers is rapidly fixed by iron and aluminum oxides, reducing nutrient availability and fertilizer efficiency.
Researchers found that struvite’s slow-release behaviour and alkaline reaction improved phosphorus recovery efficiency in the soil, enhancing nutrient utilization compared to conventional phosphate sources.
The technology also directly addresses one of the livestock sector’s major environmental challenges: nutrient overload from animal waste disposal. By recovering phosphorus and nitrogen before manure application, struvite production reduces contamination risks to surface and groundwater systems while helping intensive swine operations comply with environmental regulations.
Potential scale:340,000 tonnes annually According to estimates from Embrapa, large-scale adoption of the technology on farms with more than 5,000 pigs could generate approximately 340,000 metric tons of struvite annually in Brazil.
That production potentialpositions struvite not only as an agronomic tool, but also as a possible industrial platform within Brazil’s expanding biological and specialty fertilizer markets.
The researchers emphasize the technology creates a new revenue stream for livestock producers by converting agricultural waste into a marketable input. The approach fits squarely within circular economy principles increasingly promoted across global agriculture.
Organomineral fertilizersgain momentum Beyond pure struvite applications, Embrapa scientists are also developing organomineral formulations that combine mineral nutrients with organic matter.Early diffusion experiments showed phosphorus mobility in soil was50 percent higher during the first28 days compared to conventional granulated struvite alone.
The research suggests that struvite may be applied either independently or combined with soluble fertilizers at rates ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent of agronomic phosphorus recommendations, depending on crop and soil conditions.
Such hybrid approaches reflect broader industry trends toward multifunctional fertilizer systems that integrate mineral nutrition, biological efficiency, and soil health management.
Globally, struvite recovery has gained considerable momentum over the last decade. More than 80 production facilities were already operating worldwide by 2019, particularly in regions facing nutrient surpluses from intensive livestock production or urban wastewater systems.
Countries including China, United States, and Germany currently lead research and commercialization efforts. However, despite Brazil’s major livestock sector and strong agricultural base, scientific understanding of struvite performance under tropical soil conditions remains limited.
“It is a paradox,” Inácio noted. “We have a promising resource, but little is known about its behaviour under our acidic soils with high phosphorus adsorption capacity.”
Alignment with nationalfertilizer strategy The project aligns with the objectives of Brazil’s National Fertilizer Plan, which seeks to expand domestic fertilizer production and encourage more sustainable nutrient technologies.
The initiative also reflects increasing convergence between waste recovery, specialty fertilizers, and biological efficiency technologies – one of the strongest innovation trends currently shaping the global plant nutrition industry. In addition to Embrapa, the project involves other institutes and universities. ●
Caio de Teves Inácio, researcher at Embrapa Agrobiologia
Field trials with soybean crops demonstrated that struvite was capableof supplying up to 50 percent of phosphorus demand while maintaining yields at approximately 3,500 kg/ha.
Photo: Caio Inácio
Researchers found that struvite’s slow-release behaviour and alkaline reaction improved phosphorus recovery efficiency in the soil. Photo: Caio Inácio
By Treena Hein
It is mainly being used in the sector of water quality/pollution mitigation, but also in agriculture.
“There's already a strong base of applied and third-party research showing that nanobubbles can raise dissolved oxygen, well above what conventional aeration delivers, reduce biofilm [in irrigation systems] and pathogen pressure, and support more consistent irrigation performance,” explains Rita Pinto de Abreu, global irrigation water lead for Moleaer, a nanobubble generator manufacturer in California, U.S. “That work has been done across multiple crops and geographies.”
It is well-established that in both greenhouse and orchard environments, the extremelyhigh water oxygen levels of nanobubble-treated water produce myriad benefits, from faster growth due to greater root mass and increased nutrient absorption to better resistance in facing environmental stressors.
Rita Pinto de Abreu with Moleaer says high water oxygen levels of nanobubble-treated water produce myriad benefits, from faster growth due to greater root mass and increased nutrient absorption.
Photo: Moleaer
Most nanobubble firms have years of research results, typically from partnership projects with private companies and/or academic institutions.
Moleaer and Chile-based Kran Nanobubble are no exception. Kran CFO Martín Castro reports that his firm’s “partner-led results have shown promising trends, including improvements in water quality, plant health, yield and fruit caliber.”
Before we delve further, a quick review. Moleaer, Kran and about a dozen other firms across the globe offer ‘generators’ that produce nanobubbles in water – which are, like the name suggests, extremely tiny bubbles about 2,500 times smaller than a single grain of table salt. Super-oxygenation of water is achieved from nanobubbles produced from ambient air, but oxygen, ozone and other gases can be used. Through a variety of means, super-oxidated water kills pathogens, prevents/removes biofilm and provides other water quality benefits. More oxygen for root cells allows them to achieve higher levels of cellular respiration, spurring root growth, plant growth, more resiliency against stress, higher yields and so on.
Bubbles in orchards In the high-value market of nut and orchard fruit production, nanobubble-treated water has been a game changer for many operations by reducing root hypoxia (also known as oxygen deficiency stress), a serious problem that stems from waterlogged soils.
As far back as 2023, a group of University of Florida scientists described waterlogged soil as “one of the most important limitations to agricultural crop production.” This
team found that in the U.S. alone, 16 percent of soils are affected by waterlogging, and that associated root zone hypoxia can reduce yields by up to 80 percent depending on the plant/tree species, soil type and duration of the hypoxia stress.
How do nanobubbles in the irrigation water make a difference? Adding more water to waterlogged soils sounds counter-intuitive, but again, whether added to waterlogged or dry soil, water with nanobubbles delivers high levels of oxygen. Nanobubbles also have high internal pressure and a hard surface. Upon bursting, they break the surface tension of water. Water with reduced surface tension has a reduced ‘contact angle’ with the soil surface, a characteristic that results in better water penetration and infiltration, even in compacted soil. Water in the soil can therefore travel further down below the root
zone, reducing or eliminating waterlogging.
In the high-value market of nut and orchard fruit production,nanobubble-treated water has been a game changer for many operations, according to Moleaer. Photo: Moleaer
But at the same time, Pinto de Abreu explains that the main value of nanobubble-treated water in orchards tends to lie in the irrigation system itself.
“You achieve cleaner lines, fewer emitter problems, better distribution uniformity across blocks,” she says. “When you're irrigating large areas over many years, that consistency compounds. We also see growers using Moleaer to manage the harder water quality challenges, salinity, scaling and biological fouling that come with the regions where permanent crops are grown.”
Moleaer reports that in saline soils, removing salts that have built up in the root zone of fruit and nut trees through the use of nanobubble-
treated water greatly boosts tree performance – even saving trees’ lives.
Greenhouse use In greenhouses, nanobubbles provide similar benefits in terms of high dissolved oxygen levels in the
root zone, but also in keeping the entire irrigation system (drip lines, piping, tanks) clean. “For a recirculating grower, that kind of hygiene improvement without adding chemistry is a real shift,” says Pinto de Abreu.
In northern Chile, the use of a Kran generator over the last three years has had a huge impact at a hydroponic operation called Hidroponía Mallkivitor. Owners (and married couple) Pedro Luis Salinas Fernandez and Michelle Ponce Rojas grow baby greens and edible flowers, about 25,000 plants in a greenhouse 1200 m2. They also offer technology validation and consulting services on nanobubble and hydroponic technologies.
Hydroponic operation Hidroponía Mallkivitor in Chile grows baby greens and edible flowers, about 25,000 plantsin a greenhouse 1200 m2.
Photo: Hidroponía Mallkivitor
Both the edible flowers and greens are sold to high-end restaurants and hotels, with the flowers adorning cocktails, salads, desserts and more. “The flowers and the greens must be extremely clean and very high quality in terms of food safety and appearance,” Salinas explains. “We have customers in nearby Arica and other nearby northern cities. We also fly our products to customersin Santiago.”
Salinas and Ponce started five years ago with greens, using a nutrient film technique with plants sitting directly in PVC pipes. They trialled various types of edible flowers about a year later. While they have several layers of biosecurity for their greenhouse, they still struggled with fungal disease and insects. “White flies are our main concern and always will be,” says Salinas. “There is very high insect pressure as insects here can reproduce all year round and we have year-round greenhouse production.”
Both insecticides and fungicides were needed at the start to protect yields and quality, but Salinas and Ponce wanted to change that. Salinas’s father, who was in the mining sector and had heard of good results with nanobubble treatment for improving water quality, suggested they look at the technology. “We researched and we were very excited to try it,” says Salinas. “We applied to CORFO, our national government’s production development corporation that supports entrepreneurs, and received funding to purchase a generator, a Kran K-100 model.”
Salinas and Ponce chose to make nanobubbles from oxygen, using an
inexpensive medical oxygen concentrator, which concentrates oxygen from ambient air. This provides the maximum oxygen levels in the water for root cell respiration and provides excellent water disinfection.
During the first year of use, Salinas and Ponce were able to half their use of chemicals and achieve outstanding product quality. They also saw a 40 percent yield improvement and also 40 percent larger roots with chard, lettuce and basil. The plants also grew much faster, with cycle time for lettuces going down from 50 days after transplant to 25-35 days, depending on the variety.
“This faster cycle time provided savings in both fertilizer and water,” says Salinas. “We are in a very dry area of Chile, and we have to
purchase water delivered bytank truck.”
Hidroponía Mallkivitor started five years ago with greens, using a nutrient film technique with plants sitting directly in PVC pipes. They trialled various types of edible flowers abouta year later. Photo: Hidroponía Mallkivitor
About a year ago, Salinas and Ponce were able to stop using fungicides and insecticides completely, now employing several biological products instead. “We also have natural predator wasps that somehow entered the greenhouse and are thriving because we are no longer using chemicals,” Salinas explains. “The nanobubble-treated
water has lower surface tension, so when you are spraying products, the active ingredients stay present longer and disperse better on the leaves to deal with any insect eggs.”
In February, Salinas and Ponce began testing a solar distiller from a Dutch start-up company called SolarDew, with the hope of re-using their irrigation water. They have also begun a new CORFO-funded project to gather sensor-derived data on greenhouse temperature, humidity, light and water quality in edible flower production.
Where adoption is growing Pinto de Abreu notes that nanobubble generator use in agriculture is rising among operators that already push their systems hard, where water is expensive or scarce, and/or where water regulations are tightening. She notes that operators of high-value, extremely controlled-environment greenhouses are especially interested in Moleaer’s technology because they are focused on consistency in stable root-zone conditions and super-clean irrigation networks.
“In orchards, the main hotspots are Spain, Chile, Mexico, California and parts of the Middle East,” she reports. “These regions are dealing with water scarcity, salinity, scaling and biological fouling, often all at once. Europe is especially interesting because growers are increasingly looking for ways to reduce chemical inputs, both for cost reasons and due to the direction regulationis heading.”
High-value controlled-environment greenhouses can benefit from nanobubble technology because they are focused on consistency in stable root-zone conditions and super-clean irrigation networks.
Ultimately, adoption spreads through growers themselves validating the technology. “They can set a target (dissolved oxygen, distribution uniformity, biofilm in the lines) and watch the system perform against it over time,” says Pinto de Abreu. “That's a more practical measure than any single trial result, and it's what gives growers confidenceto scale.”
In the meantime, research on nanobubbles in agriculture will continue, with more long-term data being gathered and analyzed, particularly in permanent crops.
“Orchards reveal their full story over multiple seasons, so we're seeing yield, root development and soil structure benefits build year-over-year as our installations mature,” says Pinto de Abreu. “There's also ongoing research into how nanobubbles perform across different fertigation regimes, salinity levels and microbial conditions,not because the fundamentalsare unclear, but because growers want crop- and region-specific guidance.” ●
There's ongoing research into how nanobubbles perform across different fertigation regimes, salinity levels and microbial conditions…
Ostara has launched a higher-analysis formulation of its CG P2X fertilizer, increasing nutrient concentration while maintaining the product’s agronomic performance across a range of soils and growing conditions.
The updated formulation, analyzed at 9-42-0 with 9 Mg, delivers nearly 30 percent more nitrogen and phosphorus than the previous version. According to the company, the higher nutrient concentration allows growers to apply fewer pounds per acre, reduce handling and transportation requirements, and deliver more plant-available nutrients at the same cost.
“This is a meaningful step forward in fertilizer efficiency,” said Ron Restum, chief commercial officer at Ostara. “We’ve concentrated more plant-available nutrition into every granule so growers can move less product, apply fewer tons and still get superior, consistent performance in the field.”
Ostara said CG P2X has demonstrated consistent performance across a wide range of soil types, pH levels and production systems, including conventional, air-seeding and no-till operations. The company reports that growers using the product have seen improved nutrient uptake throughout the growing season and consistent yield gains tied to better nutrient utilization.
The fertilizer is designed to provide more than twice the plant-available nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium of conventional phosphate fertilizers, which can lose nutrients through soil fixation, runoff and leaching. Ostara said the new formulation can reduce application rates by 60 percent to 65 percent compared with MAP, DAP, NPS and TSP fertilizers while delivering more available nutrients per acre.
Research conducted across 151 trials showed a consistent yield advantage, supporting stronger
returns on fertilizer investment, the company said.
“No matter the soil, system or analysis, the outcome is the same: more consistent nutrient utilization and stronger crop performance,” said Mike Howell, vice-president of agronomy at Ostara. “This new formulation amplifies that advantage by delivering more nutrition per ton, creating even greater operational and economic value for growers.”
Unlike conventional phosphate fertilizers that dissolve quickly, CG P2X releases nutrients in response to crop demand through biological activity in the soil. Plant roots release organic acids that help unlock nutrients, while beneficial fungi, including mycorrhizae, solubilize and transport nutrients back to the crop. Ostara said this process occurs throughout the soil profile, making the product suitable for broadcast, banded air-seeding and no-till applications.
The company said the new formulation is intended to help growers increase yields while reducing fertilizer use and operational demands. The updated 9-42-0 with 9 Mg formulation is available immediately. ●
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, recognizing its role in protecting global crop diversity and supporting long-term food security through international cooperation.
The nomination, submitted by Norwegian Member of Parliament Geir Pollestad, also acknowledges the organizations that support the initiative: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), NordGen, the Crop Trustand CGIAR.
In his nomination, Pollestad noted that “food security is a fundamental prerequisite for peace.”
Located on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault stores duplicate seed samples from genebanks worldwide. Often referred to as the world’s ultimate backup for crop diversity, the facility serves as a safeguard against the loss of plant genetic resources caused by natural disasters, conflict or other crises.
The nomination highlights the link between conserving agricultural biodiversity and strengthening the resilience of global food systems.
“This Peace Prize nomination highlights how international cooperation to protect the diversity of the world’s crops contributes not only to sustainable agriculture, but also to stability and peace,” said Kent Nnadozie, secretary of FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. “Food security and peace are deeply interconnected. Ensuring access to diverse and resilient crops strengthens countries’ ability to feed their populations and adapt to future challenges. By protecting crop genetic diversity, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources help ensure that countries have the resources they need to adapt, recover and continue feedingtheir people.”
The FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture provides the legal
framework that enables countries to conserve, share and use plant genetic resources collectively. The treaty underpins the international cooperation that supports the Seed Vault and helps ensure crop diversity remains available as a shared global resource.
“The Global Seed Vault stands as a powerful symbol of international solidarity,” Nnadozie said. “The International Treaty provides the legal and cooperative framework that enables countries to share and protect the seeds that underpin our food systems.”
A key component of the treaty is its Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing, which facilitates the exchange of plant genetic resources among countries, researchers and plant breeders. The system helps maintain access to the genetic diversity needed to develop crops capable of meeting changing climate conditions and risingfood demands. ●
