economy

Researchers of Kim Il Sung University have recently developed a technique for producing efficient slow-acting fertilizer by dint of domestic technology.

It is now a global trend to use slow-acting fertilizer as it reduces fertilizer consumption and promotes the growth of crops.

The university intensified the research with a goal to develop such a fertilizer satisfying the need for nutritive substances according to stages of growth of crops by totally relying on domestic materials.

Through an in-depth study of foreign documents related with the techniques of slow-acting fertilizer production, its researchers came to a conclusion that slow-acting property might be ensured, if they use high polymer resin coating materials or urea formalin condensates as surface coating materials and additives like foreign countries, but it would be difficult to mass produce the fertilizer due to high production costs.

Therefore, they intensified research by setting it as research orientation to discover the cheaper materials which are rich in resources and can fairly ensure slow-acting property.

In the course of search for the bonding characteristics with chemical fertilizers and interactions with soil and plants, they confirmed that substances contained in glauberite have great absorbability and hardening property and found out a rational mixing ratio with chemical fertilizers through dozens of experiments, thereby providing a scientific guarantee for improving slow-acting property.

Based on it, they solved technical problems arising in granulating slow-acting fertilizer, such as grain size and drying temperature, and discovered a suitable additive for ensuring the consolidatory ability of low-intensity chemical fertilizers, thus establishing the technique for producing slow-acting fertilizer that suits the specific conditions of the country.

Later, the researchers correctly identified the amount of fertilizer ingredients released in water and soil and verified its slow-acting property in an analytical method by electric conductivity.

The introduction of the fertilizer into different units including the Namsa Farm in Rangnang District of Pyongyang showed that a round of its application a year is enough to preserve its slow-acting property until the ripening season and increase the per-hectare yield by an average of 10 percent.