UK-China Agritech Challenge Zero-Waste Agricultural Mulch Films for Crops in China (ZEWAMFI)

中英农业科技挑战赛中国农作物零废弃农用地膜 (ZEWAMFI)

• 批准号: BB/S020861/1
• 负责人: Robert Morus Elias
• 金额: $ 50.81万
• 依托单位: Bangor University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FS020861%2F1
• 关键词: UK; China; Agritech; Challenge; Zero

This collaborative project aims at improving sustainable agriculture in China with positive impacts on farming communities,specifically a continuous increase of crop yield productivity (and associated farmer's wealth) with reduced use of water, andagrochemicals (nitrogen fertilisers, and pesticides), therefore improving farm workers safety. With the advent of GlobalWarming, semi-arid regions from Asia and the Middle East are forecasted to receive less rainfall making the use of suchfilms a necessity for the production of arable food crops.The project will develop cost competitive agricultural mulch films for arable crops that will perform during use but degradethereafter and have no negative impact in terms of producing micro-plastics.Agriculture plastics are used in China to improved grain crop yield and water use efficiency through conserving water,maintaining soil moisture, suppressing losses due to weeds/birds, increasing temperature and improving cold tolerance.Their use has led to a 20-35% increase in grain crop yield and a 20-60% increase in cash crop yield. Maize, wheat, cottonand potato yields have increased by 33.7%, 33.2%, 26.1% and 36.7%, respectively, while their corresponding water useefficiency levels have increased by 38.9%, 30.2%, 30.2% and 37.8%. The typical application time of agricultural plasticsmulches in agriculture lasts only a few months and can be reduced even further when exposed to extreme weather eventssuch as hail and storms due to physical fragmentation and chemical ageing processes. These generate significant amountsof non-degradable, hardly recyclable waste, which pollute the environment either through incineration emissions, landfillleaching or microplastic residues. If not removed from the field, plastic waste accumulates in the environment where it maypose a considerable threat to terrestrial and aquatic wildlife when taken up in the food chain.This project focuses on novel plastic films that will maintain benefits related to increased crop productivity but will eliminatemicroplastic pollution in land, an unfortunate consequence of the agri-plastic mulch use, by being soil degradable. Negativeimpacts of microplastic pollution of oceans are well described and recent research has shown that where plastic mulcheshave been used and ploughed back into fields repeatedly, microplastic residue ranges from 72 kg/ha to 260 kg/ha. Plantgrowth is inhibited at these levels, and the accumulated plastic residue may affect soil moisture, nutrient transport, andsecondary salinization.Compostable polyester mulch films have been introduced in the EU/US market, but these are expensive and can be usedin high-value horticultural production.This collaborative project will design polymeric films that will be cost-competitive and could be used in arable crops (wheat,maize) will be stable during use, coupled with an end-of-life scenarios where they will be eaten by soil micro-organisms.The initial degradation will be catalyzed by oxodegradable additives, that will fragment the material, and specific enzymes/micro-organisms with suitable formulation will then metabolize the remaining material. Credible science data to evaluatethe behaviour of high performance agricultural polymeric materials will back-up the claims made on the productsA major consortium to deliver the above include Wells Plastic, currently exporting oxo-biodegradable resins and join knowhowdeveloped by academic partners CAAS and Bangor Uni. CASS is the main academic institution in China involved ininvestigating plastics in agriculture, and Bangor University has bee working on bioplastics (for food applications) but hasalso unique collections of microorganisms collected over years (both from marine, and forestry sources).

该合作项目旨在改善中国的可持续农业，对农业社区产生积极影响，特别是通过减少水和农用化学品（氮肥和农药）的使用，持续提高作物产量（以及相关农民的财富），从而提高农场工人的水平安全。随着全球变暖的到来，预计亚洲和中东的半干旱地区降雨量将减少，因此使用此类薄膜成为生产可耕粮食作物的必要条件。该项目将为可耕作物开发具有成本竞争力的农用地膜，在使用过程中会发挥作用，但使用后会降解，不会产生微塑料方面的负面影响。中国使用农业塑料，通过节水、保持土壤湿度、抑制减少杂草/鸟类造成的损失，提高温度并提高耐寒性。它们的使用使粮食作物增产20-35%，经济作物增产20-60%。玉米、小麦、棉花、马铃薯产量分别增长33.7%、33.2%、26.1%和36.7%，水资源利用效率水平分别提高38.9%、30.2%、30.2%和37.8%。农用塑料覆盖物在农业中的典型施用时间仅持续几个月，并且当暴露于冰雹和风暴等极端天气事件时，由于物理破碎和化学老化过程，可能会进一步缩短。这些产生大量不可降解、难以回收的废物，这些废物通过焚烧排放、垃圾填埋场浸出或微塑料残留物污染环境。如果不从田间清除，塑料废物会积聚在环境中，当进入食物链时，可能会对陆地和水生野生动物构成相当大的威胁。该项目重点关注新型塑料薄膜，该薄膜将保持与提高作物生产力相关的效益，但通过使土壤可降解，消除土地中的微塑料污染，这是使用农用塑料覆盖物的不幸后果。海洋微塑料污染的负面影响已得到充分描述，最近的研究表明，在重复使用塑料覆盖物并犁回田地的地方，微塑料残留量为 72 公斤/公顷至 260 公斤/公顷。在这些水平下，植物生长受到抑制，积累的塑料残留物可能会影响土壤湿度、养分运输和二次盐碱化。可堆肥聚酯地膜已在欧盟/美国市场推出，但价格昂贵，可用于高价值的园艺生产该合作项目将设计具有成本竞争力的聚合物薄膜，可用于耕种作物（小麦、玉米），在使用过程中保持稳定，并在报废场景中使用被土壤微生物吃掉。最初的降解将由可氧化降解的添加剂催化，这将使材料破碎，然后具有合适配方的特定酶/微生物将代谢剩余材料。评估高性能农业聚合材料行为的可靠科学数据将支持对产品的主张。提供上述产品的主要财团包括 Wells Plastic，目前出口氧化生物降解树脂，并加入了学术合作伙伴 CAAS 和班戈大学开发的专有技术。中国社会科学院是中国研究农业塑料的主要学术机构，班戈大学一直致力于生物塑料（用于食品应用）的研究，但也拥有多年来收集的独特微生物（来自海洋和林业来源）。