For almost a year, Anna Nelyubina, a fourth-year student of the Institute of Chemistry and Ecology of VyatSU, under the guidance of the Head of the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Processing Technology Roman Vesnin and the Associate Professor Andrei Burkov has been working on the project «Production of a new type of long-acting fertilizer».
The purpose of the young researcher is to obtain encapsulated fertilizer coated with a biopolymer that is superior to modern preparations in terms of efficiency and allows reducing the cost of production, storage, transportation and direct use. Anna said that she set out to solve the current problem of leaching mineral fertilizers from fields into ground and underground water bodies. This causes a dangerous accumulation of components of the preparations used in representatives of biocenoses, up to humans. In addition, the use of most well-known fertilizers does not guarantee uniform nutrition of plants, and agricultural producers are forced to apply them repeatedly, which makes the process time-consuming and not effective enough.
- I offer prolonged-action fertilizers that significantly reduce costs at all stages: from production to application to the soil. Traditional fertilizers, when dissolved, increase the concentration of nutrients, but over time, it decreases. This requires applying the preparation to the soil up to four times per season. Slow-acting fertilizer is applied once - and then it works the whole period, releasing nutrients through the membrane, - explained Anna Nelyubina.
In addition, new fertilizers are aimed at reducing the level of environmental pollution: having the form of capsules, they have a low rate of release of nutrients even with a small thickness. Unlike foreign analogues, the fertilizers developed at Vyatka State University have a shell consisting of biodegradable rather than synthetic material. According to the developer, the new fertilizers are suitable for all types of plants, without exception, improving their nutrition and increasing soil fertility.
The development has already been praised by representatives of the expert community at the iVolga youth forum, where Anna Nelyubina won a grant, and at many other prestigious events. Now the project is being implemented with the financial support of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society Institutions in the Volga Federal District.
Recently, Anna returned from Yekaterinburg, where she successfully presented the project to SKOLKOVO experts as part of the Open Innovations Startup Tour.
The trip was made possible thanks to the support of the project office ASI-VyatSU, - Anna shared. –
This support is very noticeable. Employees of the project office of ASI-VyatSU made a request to the relevant Ministry on the topic of my interest, organized master classes in public speaking and modern presentation, and helped with the preparation of a business plan. We are currently consulting with marketers.
The VyatSU laboratory has already created prototypes of new fertilizers - their tests can be observed in the project group in VK.
