Can fertilisers go green?
Synthetic fertilisers such as ammonia are great for crops, but terrible for the climate. Graihagh Jackson meets the businesses trying to make better versions.
Ammonia has revolutionised the way we produce our food, helping us to grow much, much more... But it’s also helping to grow global greenhouse gas emissions too.
Synthetic fertilisers are actually responsible for around 5% of the planet-warming gases going into the air - that’s more than deforestation.
In this episode, Graihagh Jackson examines this challenge that modern agriculture poses to the climate, and finds out whether it’s possible to cut emissions from fertiliser use without cutting food production at the same time. She’ll also be joined by local reporters in Kenya to hear about innovative projects aiming to tackle this problem and turn farming green.
Do you have a climate question you’d like answered? E-mail us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com
Presenter: Graihagh Jackson
Reporters in Kenya: Michael Kaloki and James Gitaka
Producer: Ben Cooper
Researcher: Octavia Woodward
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Editors: Simon Watts and Sophie Eastaugh
Last on
Broadcasts
- Sun 14 Apr 2024 13:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Sun 14 Apr 2024 13:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service News Internet
- Sun 14 Apr 2024 21:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Wed 17 Apr 2024 01:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Wed 17 Apr 2024 08:32GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Wed 17 Apr 2024 19:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
Podcast
-
The Climate Question
Why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.