Soil study could cut farm use of fertilisers

A biological mechanism that makes plant roots more attractive to soil microbes has been discovered by scientists in the UK. The breakthrough - by researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Norfolk - opens the door to the creation of crops requiring reduced amounts of nitrate and phosphate fertilisers, they say.

- Robin McKie Science Editor

"We can now think of developing a new type of environmentally friendly farming with crops that require less artificial fertiliser," said Dr Myriam Charpentier, whose group carried out the research.

Excess use of fertilisers has become a major ecological problem and has been linked to soil degradation, while run-offs from fields are causing major pollution in rivers where algae blooms spread across the water, and kill fish and other aquatic life.