Farmers today are facing some hefty challenges. Year after year, they have to produce enough high-quality food to feed an expanding global population. They’re trying to adapt to shifting growing seasons, temperatures and rainfall patterns, and to produce crops without hurting the planet. And they need to do all that while still turning a profit.
Xiaopeng Gao is on it. The University of Manitoba researcher and his team of half a dozen graduate students are examining how nutrients flow through soil and plants. That includes both macronutrients like the nitrogen required to grow crops and micronutrients like iron and zinc required for human health.
“[It’s] about how you can manage your soil nutrients better in terms of productivity, in terms of how you can protect the environment better, and also in terms of how you can improve the producer’s economic return,” says Gao.
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