05/01/08 WSU scientist gets big grant to study nitrogen fixing (repeat)

Washington Ag May 2, 2008 A Washington State University scientist involved in fundamental research that may someday reduce farmers' reliance on industrially produced nitrogen fertilizer has received a 510-thousand dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Bioscience Program. Michael Kahn, a fellow in Washington State University's Institute of Biological Chemistry and associate director of the Agricultural Research Center, is trying to improve the nitrogen productivity of legumes, which fix their own nitrogen. Plants like alfalfa, peas, lentils and chickpeas. Kahn hopes to boost the amount of nitrogen carried over to a subsequent crop. Kahn: "You get a nitrogen benefit that might be transferred to wheat for example in this area. So that farmers growing wheat, that doesn't have this capability, would have to use less fertilizer and ideally would use no nitrogen fertilizer, which would be substantial cost savings to them. And also in some ways a lot more sustainable in terms of the agriculture that is involved." Any reduction in nitrogen fertilizer use would certainly help on the input side for wheat growers as anhydrous ammonia fertilizer prices have gone from 250-dollars a ton in 2002 to what some people speculate may be one thousand dollars a ton this year. I'm Bob Hoff.