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‘Rocks for Crops' Focus of Textbook
Feeding the world's poor and protecting the environment in developing nations is the dual purpose of “rocks for crops,” a rural development concept long championed by Prof. Peter van Straaten, Land Resource Science. Now he's compiled his ideas and experiences related to using cheaper local rock minerals as crop fertilizers into a one-of-a-kind textbook linking geology and agriculture.
Agrogeology: The Use of Rocks for Crops was published this year by Enviroquest Ltd. in Cambridge, Ont. Written for students, teachers, scientists, farmers and policy-makers, the 440-page book covers the path of plant nutrients from rocks to soils to crops. The book is based on van Straaten's longtime work with development organizations and farmers in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. He says using local agro-minerals such as rock phosphates can help restore soil fertility and increase food production without importing costly fertilizers from other countries.
“The focus on using rock and mineral resources for agriculture is in response to the urgent need to increase food production in parts of the world where food security is still a major challenge,” says van Straaten, who is organizing the second international rocks for crops conference this year in Kenya.