An Opportunity to Study ‘Life after manufactured fertiliser’
An OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY ‘Life after manufactured fertiliser’
Applications open for the 2011 Frank Arden Study Award
The Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust (NFST) is pleased to announce a special award offering leading industry individuals the chance to explore ‘Life after manufactured fertiliser’.
Sponsored by the Frank Arden Memorial Fund, the travel study aims to identify opportunities to reduce our reliance on manufactured fertiliser and find alternatives to these increasingly scarce and costly inputs.
This special award is open to UK residents working in the fields of food, farming or forestry. There is no age limit for applicants.
“Our current use of manufactured fertilisers relies on finite world resources,” points out Stephen Watkins, NFST vice chairman. “Whilst global reserves of potash are adequate for the foreseeable future, the availability of phosphate and the energy to produce nitrogen are both limited, and are expected to become increasingly scarce over the coming decades.
“Significant price volatility at the farm gate is already a fact of life and further predicted price rises pose a serious threat to the profitability of our farms. Time is fast running out and we must start thinking hard about the ways in which our dependence on these manufactured inputs can be reduced, whilst also finding ways to use them more effectively.”
Successful applicants of the 2011 Frank Arden Award will be tasked with researching scientific and practical management opportunities. These might include methods to target phosphate and nitrogen use and to recycle these nutrients far more effectively, or techniques to increase the way in which they are recycled within the soil and released by the soil biota.
Opportunities may also exist to develop plants that use these nutrients more efficiently, or are better able to scavenge them from the soil. Genetic engineering is also seen to have the potential to achieve a step change in the way these types of nutrients are utilised by certain plants.
Nuffield Scholarships
Nuffield Farming Scholarships were founded to discover new knowledge through travel and apply it to practical and profitable industry outputs here in the UK, explains NFST director, John Stones, who can point to numerous innovations, particularly at the farm level, which have resulted directly from individual scholar studies.
“The 2011 Frank Arden Award represents the sixth in a series of sponsored industry investigations which have already provided farmers with important, often ground-breaking information. “We believe this new study will be of considerable relevance and will provide some definitive recommendations to help our industry deal with a dwindling and increasingly costly resource.
“Getting answers, bringing back useful information and providing firm recommendations is what this study is all about,” he explains.
Award applications
The closing date for applications is 18th March 2011, to be followed by interviews for shortlisted candidates on 7th April 2011.
Applicants are required to submit a proposal outlining their scheme of study, together with how they intend to act on their findings. Submissions should be presented on one side of A4.
Successful applicants are required to commence studies immediately after selection to be able to complete the research element by early 2012. The bursary provided allows for reasonable research and travel expenses, both in the UK and abroad.
Further information can be obtained from John Stones, Director Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust - Tel: 01858 555544, Email: nuffielddirector@aol.com (www.nuffieldscholar.org).
