Turning pollen into a low-cost fertilizer.

Turning pollen into a low-cost fertilizer. As the world population continues to balloon, agricultural experts puzzle over how farms will produce enough food to keep up with demand. One tactic involves boosting crop yields. Toward that end, scientists have developed a method to make a low-cost, biocompatible fertilizer with carbon dots derived from rapeseed pollen. The study found that applying the carbon dots to hydroponically cultivated lettuce promoted its growth by 50 percent. Turning pollen into a low-cost fertilizer.