Skip to content

N

Environmental Defense Fund / Innocentive Award

Biological capture of nitrogen by means of bamboo

Problem:

The rain washes away the fertilizers, flowing till the rivers, lakes and sea. The increase in the concentration of nutrients leads then to euthrophization phenomena.

Our solution:

A drain system collects the water with nutrients and a pump brings them to a plantation of bamboo disposed as a belt around the plot’s perimeter. The bamboo works as a biofilter.  In this way the fertilizers washed away by the rain are recycled to grow giant bamboo with several food and industrial scopes. With less ploughed area the same quantity of crops is produced, because the hydric stress on the plants is reduced. Furthermore it is possibile to harvest the bamboo shoots and canes all year round, because it is a perennial crop.