The next agricultural revolution: a ‘bionic leaf’ that could help feed the world

kurzweilai.net ^ | 4/3/2017 | Kurtzweil AI Network

[unlearner]

Harvard University chemists have invented a new kind of “bionic” leaf that uses bacteria, sunlight, water, and air to make fertilizer right in the soil where crops are grown. It could make possible a future low-cost commercial fertilizer for poorer countries in the emerging world...

Fertilizer created from sunlight + water + carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the air

For the new “bionic leaf,” Nocera’s team has designed a system in which bacteria use hydrogen from the water split by the artificial leaf plus carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make a bioplastic that the bacteria store inside themselves as fuel. “I can then put the bug [bacteria] in the soil because it has already used the sunlight to make the bioplastic,” Nocera says. “Then the bug pulls nitrogen from the air and uses the bioplastic, which is basically stored hydrogen, to drive the fixation cycle to make ammonia for fertilizing crops.”

[tbw2]

The discovery of nitrogen fixing bacteria in the UK and Brazil that can be sprayed on seeds then planted with this natural fertilizer producing sybiotic bacteria is already under development after field trials.

[ckilmer]

more complex greenhouses and vertical farms grow fish and plants. the water from the fish tanks is filled with nutrients mentioned in the article and then recirculated to feed the plants.