The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Anglo American announced on Tuesday a new partnership for a research project to fight soil salinization, under the joint FAO and IAEA Atoms4Food initiative that aims to address growing hunger around the world.
The landmark initiative was launched last year to expand the use of nuclear techniques to enhance agricultural productivity, reduce food losses, improve nutrition and adapt to the challenges of climate change.
"To tackle global hunger and increase food security, we need science, we need innovation, and we need to make the most of all available tools, including nuclear techniques," said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. "We also need everybody engaged, especially the private sector. This partnership with Anglo American will help us to maximize impact and scale up interventions."
CEO of Anglo American's Crop Nutrients business Tom McCulley said: "Our research partnership with the IAEA is a perfect example of our purpose in action - we are re-imagining mining to improve people's lives. It is abundantly clear that, as a society, we need to change the way we grow food around the world - moving away from legacy inputs into more sustainable farming practices."
CEO McCulley announced Anglo American's partnership with the IAEA, along with a generous financial contribution, during the opening session of the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications and the Technical Cooperation Programme in Vienna on 26 November. The Ministerial Conference brings together ministers and senior officials to discuss the role of nuclear science and technology in addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges, including in health, food security and safety, water resource management, and climate change.
Research project to develop climate smart agricultural practices
The IAEA, through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and Anglo American are launching a coordinated research project to focus on the development of climate-smart agricultural practices to effectively manage and remediate salt-affected soils. Such practices can benefit farm economics and the environment alike.
Climate change, poor farming practices, sea water intrusion and land use changes, threaten the world's soil by salinization - the increasing amount of salt content in soil - which subsequently leads to a breakdown of soil function. Globally, it is estimated that 932 million hectares of soils are salt-affected, according to the Guideline for Salinity Assessment, Mitigation and Adaptation Using Nuclear and Related Techniques.
One of the main objectives of the five-year research project is to measure and compare the benefits and effectiveness of applying polyhalite mineral and other commercially available soil additives to reclaim salt-affected soils, enhance crop productivity and quality under changing climate, and understand nutrient release and dynamics.
"Polyhalite has a major role to play, and we are currently developing a mine in the UK to access the world's largest known deposit," CEO McCulley said. "Soil degradation and salinity is an enormous and underappreciated problem, and I congratulate the FAO and the IAEA for their leadership on this critical issue, and we look forward to making a real difference through our collaboration."
Polyhalite is a naturally occurring mineral containing the nutrients potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium. Anglo American is currently developing the Woodsmith Project in the northeast of England to access the world's largest known deposit of polyhalite as a source of environmentally friendly soil fertilizers. Research is required to understand the full potential of this complex mineral. The IAEA, through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, has extensive experience and expertise in the use of isotopic techniques to trace the dissolution and movement of nutrients in soils. The movement of nutrients in soils is key to understanding and comparing how natural minerals behave in soils containing natural polyhalite compared to commonly available fertilizers.
"Through this partnership, we are leveraging nuclear science and its applications to research and improve agricultural practices, which could ultimately have a significant impact on crop productivity and food security," Director General Grossi said.
