China links with Canada's Teck Resources to promote zinc fertilizer use
Shanghai. March 20. INTERFAX-CHINA - China's Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) signed an agreement Monday to promote the use of zinc fertilizer in collaboration with Canada's Teck Resources Ltd., the world's largest producer of the metal.
The initiative is intended to foster the development of the domestic zinc fertilizer industry and encourage lead fertilizer producers to develop zinc-based products, Hang Dapeng, the party secretary of the MoA's National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center (NATESC), said in a statement on Teck's website.
Overuse of other types of fertilizer and intensive production have rendered some 50 percent of China's agricultural land zinc deficient, according to soil tests carried out by the International Zinc Association (IZA). An official nutritional survey conducted in 2005 revealed the metal to be the most lacking mineral nutrient in the Chinese diet and estimated that more than 40 percent children aged six or below suffered from zinc deficiency.
Increasing zinc content in fertilizer can improve food production as well as boost zinc concentration in agricultural products, thereby increasing the dietary availability of the mineral, Greg Brouwer, director of IZA's Zinc Nutrient Initiative (ZNI), said in a research report.
Domestic supplies of zinc fertilizer are more than ample to meet China's needs. The country last year produced 210,000 tons zinc sulfate, the main zinc fertilizer, but only 20,000 tons was used as fertilizer domestically while 110,000 tons was exported, IZA's director Fan Mingxian told Interfax.
Zinc fertilizer also has an important role to play in developing water-saving agriculture, noted Fan, adding that there has been significant interest among China's local authorities in the new program with Teck, which is already oversubscribed.
China's NATESC in March last year signed a similar agreement with IZA to cooperate in promoting zinc fertilizer use.
China consumed more than 48 million tons of fertilizer in 2008, about 31 percent of the global total. The two principle types of zinc sulfate are zinc sulfate heptahydrate and zinc sulphate monohydrate, which have zinc contents of 23 percent and 35 percent respectively.
- GD