Plants ‘greener’ than fertilizers: researchBy Esme Yeh / Staff reporterResearch by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) found that interplanting Napier grass with sunn hemp can effectively increase carbon storage of forage fields without causing soil acidification such as in using nitrogen fertilizers. Napier grass is a perennial forage crop that has become commonly adopted in Taiwan since it was introduced from the Philippines in 1961. TLRI director-general Huang Jeng-fang (黃振芳) said on Wednesday that the institute conducted research on applying carbon-negative farming to Napier grass fields from 2023 to last year. Research showed that only using nitrogen fertilizers in cultivating Napier grass still yielded the most production with the highest crude protein content in the forage crop, showing that nitrogen fertilizers remain more capable of stabilizing the crop’s production and quality, Huang said. However, interplanting Napier grass with sunn hemp — combined with reduced amounts of nitrogen fertilizers — showed a better ability to prevent soil acidification and increase soil carbon storage, he said, adding that the application of cow dung fertilizers had similar effects.

Source: Taipei Times January 24, 2026 16:02 UTC