Technology Description

"This technology turns harvested plants with a high silica content (between 20 and 30% SiO2) into ash through the use of a furnace. The ash is combined with other organic sources to create compost that can release solvent potassium silicate at a rate corresponding to crops' mineral intake needs."

• Organic silica is a biological material that comes from natural plant sources such as horsetail, rice hulls, and soy husks .
  
• Other forms of silica, which are commonly referred to as sand, come from natural deposits or are created chemically or as byproducts of mining operations and would not be classified as organic.
  
• Silica manufactured in this manner could be used by organic farmers to meet their desires to find natural sources of silica. The inventor designed the material to be made on an individual farming site so as to avoid transportation costs which also meets organic farmers' desires to make or purchase supplies locally.
  
• The inventor is an organic farmer himself who was looking for a means to replenish lost silica in soil which is becoming a greater problem throughout his home country of India as more and more farmers have turned to traditional methods of farming which includes using chemicals as a single source of providing plant nutrition.
  
• The product will add an additional step to the composting process that is already carried out by organic farmers or suppliers of farmers.
  
• The technology is unique in that the silica comes in a form that can be used by the plants and has been designed using a crop that has a high silica content as compared to other silica containing plants.
  

Contact details:

Information Manager
Email: timeis@ficci.com