Seaweed fertilizer: eat "blue seafood" for crops

Seaweed is one of the oldest species on earth, and the human use of seaweed is both ancient and modern. From a plate of home-cooked dishes on the dinner table, to paper-shaped seaweed cellulose batteries, to high-end marine biological products such as medical dressings, facial masks and surgical sutures, technological innovations have changed the traditional value of seaweed and driven the blue economy. It also virtually affects people's lives.

This time, seaweed diet added a "new dish"-borage algae. "Sea borage algae is a kind of sargassum family, because it tastes crisp and tender, as delicious as lettuce, so it is named sea borage algae." Tang Jie, general manager of Beijing Leili Marine Biological New Industry Co., Ltd., said that unlike traditional seaweed foods such as kelp, borage algae is a new wild product explored by Leili's team for many years and collected in the Yellow Sea at longitude 35 °east and latitude 120 °north.

"the sea area is a zero-pollution, low-temperature sea area with rapid currents, large nutrient exchange capacity, and a pure and good ecological environment that makes borage algae grow strong, fully accumulate nutrients and keep the algae clean." Tang Jie, who has been engaged in seaweed research for more than 20 years, is excited about the discovery. "seaweed is rich in iodine, amino acids, minerals and a variety of trace elements, which has always been known as' marine vegetables', which is of great benefit to human health."

People have a long habit of eating seaweed. British seafarers have a record of using red algae to prevent and treat scurvy, while the Irish lived through hunger years with red algae and green algae. Japan began to eat seaweed in the 8th century. up to now, the annual consumption of seaweed has reached 100000 tons.

In China, seaweed was more used as medicine in the early days, and terrestrial food has always played a dominant role in the diet of Chinese people. in recent years, with the rise of the concept of organic green, the concept of low-fat, low-calorie healthy diet has been highly respected. Seaweed that grows in the ocean and is free from land chemical pollution has also begun to enter the homes of ordinary people.

The popularity of seaweed food has also led to the development of the seaweed industry. at present, the seaweed aquaculture industry is distributed in 44 countries around the world, with an annual output of tens of millions of tons, worth billions of dollars. The total annual output of seaweed farming in China has reached more than 7 million tons, accounting for almost half of the world's total output. "the healthy image of seaweed provides an opportunity for seaweed producers. In addition to common food ingredients such as Laver and cabbage, seaweed flavor snacks such as dried seaweed shreds, seaweed noodles, seaweed sauce and ready-to-eat seaweed vegetables are also gradually favored by the market." Tang Jie said that more and more businesses smell the business opportunities in the seaweed market, and a high value-added industry has sprung up. The seaweed industry chain has developed from a single seaweed culture to the use of seaweed for deep processing of food and health products, and then to using seaweed extract to make seaweed fertilizer to nourish crops.

Now, seaweed fertilizer gives crops new nutrients to eat. Seaweed fertilizer is a kind of fertilizer which uses marine plant seaweed as the main raw material or core raw material, through special extraction and production process, and then processed with essential nutrient elements of crops. "applying seaweed fertilizer is like 'eating seafood' to crops. According to different colors, seaweed is usually divided into red algae, green algae and brown algae. The extract of sargassum in brown algae has high nutritional value and can improve the quality of agricultural products. The grown fruits, vegetables and grains are all very full and have high nutritional value." Tang Jie said that many minerals in the earth's soil are deposited by marine organisms. With the rapid development of agricultural farming, the soil has become barren. Through seaweed biotechnology, the soil can be restored to its original state. The nutritional value of crops has been improved and the taste has improved.

Seaweed fertilizer was widely used in some coastal countries and regions of Europe as early as the 17th century. Crops and vegetables planted hundreds of miles along the coastline in Brittany and Normandy, France, are famous for the use of seaweed compost, known as the "Golden Coast". To the 1940s and 1950s, Britain, the United States and other countries have set up seaweed fertilizer production plants. In 1993, Phoenix-250 seaweed fertilizer was officially identified as a special fertilizer for native agriculture by the United States Department of Agriculture, and seaweed fertilizer received unprecedented attention.

But in China, until 1994, when Tang Jie began to develop seaweed fertilizer, there was not only no folk tradition of applying seaweed fertilizer, but also no related scientific research accumulation in academic circles. "it was not until 1998 when the technological achievements of Leili 2000 functional compound liquid fertilizer developed by Lei Li were certified by the Ministry of Agriculture that China achieved a breakthrough in independent research and development of seaweed fertilizer." Tang Jie said that although seaweed fertilizer finally came out in China, the market accepted this new thing for a long time. At first, the promotion of seaweed fertilizer was very difficult. As the earliest enterprise in China to research and develop seaweed fertilizer, Leili Agricultural Chemical Co., Ltd. had to look overseas first, and then returned to China until the market and technology were relatively mature. "at present, our products have been extended to 80 countries and regions, and we have taken the lead in establishing a chain operation system of green fertilizer industry in China, with more than 4000 stores." Tang Jie said.

According to the data obtained from multi-site experiments, the application of seaweed fertilizer to citrus, cherry, grape, apple and other crops can generally increase the yield by 10% to 15%, increase the cost by 100 to 200 yuan per mu, and the output-input ratio can reach 4.3 ∶ 1. High income promotes the rapid development of seaweed fertilizer industry. up to now, there are dozens of varieties of seaweed fertilizer liquid, powder and granules on the market, and there are more than 300 seaweed fertilizer production enterprises. The total annual output value is growing at a rate of 30%, and the space is huge. In addition to improving the quality of agricultural products, what is more valuable is that the use of seaweed fertilizer can also reduce environmental pollution. The traditional chemical fertilizer industry consumes non-renewable resources such as natural gas and oil. Seaweed absorbs nutrients from the ocean. At the same time, it is a renewable resource and can be recycled.