Turf QLD Industry Alert |Nitrogen Edge of Field, Barrier Bioreactor Wall.
Nitrogen Edge of Field, Barrier Bioreactor Wall.
The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and QUT are running the research projects with the aim of better protecting freshwater creeks flowing to the internationally important wetlands of the Pumicestone Passage. (see link).
Dozens of pineapple growers have gathered at the base of a sloping field in the Glass House Mountains as DAF development horticulturist Stuart Irvine-Brown showed them the nation’s first ‘nitrogen edge of field, barrier bioreactor’ wall.
A farmer explained it was an impressive name for the simple process of digging a trench, filling it with wood chips and covering it with soil.
“Bioreactor walls have been proven to work in places such as New Zealand, North America and Europe, and we have seen already in other pilot projects that we’re getting sometimes up to 25 per cent or more reduction of nitrate.”
“We’re farmers, we need to use fertilisers and chemicals to grow our product but we also need to look after our environment,” he said.
“If something as simple as this trench system with woodchip in can help the waterways in any way and still let us farm, then I’m all for it.”
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