Breakthrough in agriculture: the innovative soil enhancer SaproStraw, successfully created with peat as one of its ingredients

UAB GJ Magma has completed the EU NextGeneration and New Generation Lithuania project “Development and implementation of organic fertilisers from biologically treated straw and sapropel for the conversion of unproductive/degraded soils to productive ones”. In this project, an innovative organic soil enhancer called SaproStraw has been developed and tested in field trials. In a quarry sandy unproductive soil with only 0.22% organic matter, the organic fertiliser SaproStraw was used to artificially create a fertile soil. In this soil, the organic matter content increased from 0.22% to 1.56% and the humus value increased from 0% to 0.953% in 6 months. Compared to the control, the addition of mineral fertilizers in the background of a uniform dose, Yields of the following crops increased: peas by 45-96%, beans by 125-183%, leeks by 80-163%, Pekin cabbage by 91-99% and red beetroot by 112-136%.

The field research was carried out by scientists from the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LGMTU). The sandy soil has developed fertile soil properties and produced good yields. LGMTU’s main conclusion is that SaproStraw is suitable for the conversion of degraded or desertified unproductive soils to productive ones, to a level suitable for crop production.

“SaproStraw is intended to be produced using partially dewatered sapropel, from which 50% of the water is removed by gravity dewatering. “The industrial line for the production of SaproStraw will use straw shredded in the straw shredding equipment of the Radviliškis Machinery Plant. In order to prevent the transmission of diseases and pathogens with the straw, it is planned to heat-treat the straw with hot air in an electric hot-air generator in a storage bunker for shredded straw. A small amount of dry peat used in the production process is also to be crushed in the equipment in the hammer mill. All components are to be mixed in a continuous flow mixer.

For faster decomposition of the straw, SaproStraw is combined with an integral additive – the biological preparation BioTero, produced by the Lithuanian company NANDO.

SaproStraw is equivalent to 1 tonne of manure in terms of its potential to create humus in the soil, without the odour and GHG emissions of manure. Sapropel, the organic-mineral sediment of freshwater lakes, has been forming slowly since the last ice age, so all the mineralization, decay and humification processes that have taken place in it have already taken place and potential GHG emissions have already occurred. No significant emissions of GHGs have been detected during lake discharge and processing.

SaproStraw can add more value in arid zones, where 2-3 harvests per year are possible. The product is positioned as an export product. The start-up Desert soil agrotech UAB has been set up to create a breakthrough in the use of SaproStraw in arid zone countries.

A pilot batch of SaproStraw soil improver has been produced together with specialists from the Radviliškis Machinery Plant.