SANDY, Utah — A company in Sandy is using nanotechnology to help shape the agriculture industry on a global scale by creating a product that helps plants use fertilizer more effectively.
According to Nano-YieldCo-founder Clark T. Bell, the product contains nanoparticles, which are produced in their lab. These nanoparticles are 1,000 times smaller than a grain of sand.
Subsequently, the nanoparticles are placed into a solution that is bottled and shipped from their warehouse to farms across the U.S. and in 14 countries.
Bell said it took his team about a decade to develop the technology and explained how the solution works with fertilizer.
“What nanoparticles do is they fill fertilizer molecules so that fertilizer is absorbed better on a plant or in a soil,” he said.
Since developing the technology, the team has seen a snowball effect of success.
“We’ve been able to you know grow our business, almost double, year-over-year for the past three years,” Bell reported.
Currently, the product is sold across the U.S. and in 14 other countries. It’s being used on apple and peach orchards, as well as sod and alfalfa farms.
“The biggest thing I really see about it is, you can cut your dry and wet fertilizer rates back by using this product,” explained Chet Olsen who helps oversee land in Spanish Fork that gets fertilized for corn, alfalfa and other crops.
Olsen reported the technology has saved him about 60 to 100 dollars per acre.
While the product appears to be having a positive impact on Olsen’s bottom line, Clark said it also addresses environmental concerns. One of them being algal blooms.
Since their product helps plant absorb more fertilizer, less of it ends up in bodies of water, which means fewer nutrients that contribute to harmful algal blooms.
