UAE student’s research to help strengthen soil quality

A graduate student from UAE’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is developing soil fertility-enhancing biodegradable microbeads to strengthen the country’s farming sector.

Fatima Al Jallaf, through her research, aims to attach specific microbes to the microbeads that are likely to spread through the soil and enhance its ability to support crop sustainability.

While fertility-enhancing microbeads have previously been developed in the US, they are not suitable for UAE because of the difference in weather, which can make the beads dry up and shrink after being inserted in the soil.

Assistant professor of chemical engineering and advisor to Al Jallaf Dr Hector Hernandez said: "Microbial communities, like the ones we want to bring to UAE soils, need an environment to live in.

"This is the role of the microbead, like a housing community, it will contain all of the ‘amenities’ required for the microbes to thrive. When in the soil, the microbes will propagate in the beads and release important nutrients, which will diffuse out to the soil."

The UAE has to import between 85% and 90% of its food, despite using over 70% of its water in irrigation for agriculture, due to its non-conducive sandy soil quality.

Al Jallaf, who believes that improving the quality of the country’s soil will help increase food production, said: "Healthy soil is teeming with millions of microorganisms who perform a variety of functions, such as removing toxins and storing carbon.

"The problem with the UAE’s desert soils is that they are largely devoid of carbon sources and these helpful microorganisms. We are trying to bring these growth-promoting bacteria into the soil with this microbead research."

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Image: The research is likely to improve the soil quality of UAE. Photo: courtesy of amenic181/ freedigitalphotos.net.