A carbon-negative fertilizer that helps rural farmers improve their yields by 30%, income by 50%, and decrease irrigation

We produce a carbon-negative fertilizer blend that helps rural farmers improve their yields by 30% at the same price they pay for inputs.

Long Description

Most of the world’s fertilizers today are produced in large-scale, centralized, capital-intensive facilities located mostly in North America, Europe, and China, and then shipped to emerging economies. Due to this long-distance transportation, rural farmers often pay 2-3 times the world price for their fertilizers. Due to their limited income, they can often only afford the cheapest, synthetic varieties that overtime degrade/acidify their soil.

We use technology to downsize fertilizer production, such that it can be implemented profitably on a village level using locally available resources (biomass/agricultural residues). The technology relies on a thermochemical process called biomass torrefaction, and has been developed/licensed from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Imagine low-cost, small-scale, and portable reactor units that can be latched onto the back of tractors, donkey carts, and even shipping containers, and be carried from farm to farm in remote areas to enable the decentralized, in-situ conversion of agricultural residues into fertilizer. In this process, agricultural residues are heated under controlled air and densifies into a carbon-rich intermediate. This continuous process does not require any external energy/heat. When this intermediate is mixed with our proprietary nutrient recipes into a standalone fertilizer, it (a) acts as a liming agent to reverse soil pH, and (b) retains nutrient/water better. This reduces irrigation need, and helps farmers improve their yields. At the same price that farmers currently pay for fertilizers, their yields can increase by 30%. Furthermore, because this carbon-rich product stays inert when applied to the soil, it effectively sequesters carbon back into the soil.