Development sees M&S enter an exclusive partnership with Bartholomews Agrifood and Fertiberia using the first fertilisers in the world produced with green hydrogen instead of natural gas.

As part of its wider low impact farming programme, Marks & Spencer has today announced that the 27 English and Welsh farms in its dedicated milk pool will use an innovative next-generation green fertiliser from Spring 2024. Known as Impact Zero, the fertiliser range manufactured by Fertiberia using green hydrogen, is exclusively distributed in the UK by Bartholomews, which has entered a partnership with M&S to ensure that its dairy farms will be the first to use it.

The fertiliser (Fertiberia Tech Nergetic Range) contains a mix of Nitric and Ammoniacal Nitrogen, providing immediate- and progressive-release N respectively, as well as plant-available Sulphur for effective plant growth and to drive nitrogen-use efficiency. In addition, it contains an exclusive biodegradable regulating polymer coating that reduces leaching losses.

Overall, this delivers nitrogen-use efficiency 22 per cent higher than conventional fertiliser, offering the opportunity to use less fertiliser and potentially reduce the number of applications, as well as the amount of leaching. This is supported by preliminary data from trials on M&S dairy farms, which show that the product applied at a rate of 150kg/ha (equivalent to 36 kg nitrogen/ha) leads to 31% higher yields over two silage cuts than NS 27/12 at the same application rate (150 kg Product/ha and 41 kg nitrogen/ha).

But, as well as better agronomic performance, the real benefit comes from the unique way it is manufactured using green hydrogen, resulting in a CO2e reduction of approximately 3 tonnes per tonne of ammonia used compared to conventional fertiliser. This sees production of ammonia move from utilising natural gas to produce hydrogen, to using only water and renewable energy, significantly reducing the environmental impact.

Commenting on the announcement, Steve McLean, Head of Agriculture and Fisheries at M&S, said:

"As a business, M&S has set bold targets to reduce our carbon footprint and become a net zero business across our entire value chain by 2040. 72 per cent of the M&S Food's emissions come from agriculture and around half of these are from livestock, primarily ruminants. As such, it is critical that we work with our farmers to deliver meaningful change. We believe that the use of these fertilisers will enable our farmers to maintain productivity whilst playing an important role in helping to decarbonise milk production, and we are excited to have entered this partnership with Bartholomews and our dairy pool members.

He added: "This new technology is applicable to all grass-based systems and systems where fertiliser is a key component in delivering efficient food production. The M&S milk pool has a long track record of adopting innovative solutions to improve sustainability, and we will be fully verifying the impact of this development on carbon through independent analysis by SRUC as we continue to work to deliver low impact farming solutions across our food business."

Gary Herman, Chief Executive of Bartholomews, added: "With an ever-increasing world population, against a background of ever decreasing available productive land mass, agriculture is challenged to become ever more efficient. This increase in productivity needs to be achieved in a sustainable manner and the Impact Zero range of fertilisers provides the sustainable crop nutrition solution the world deserves."

Javier Goñi, CEO of Grupo Fertiberia, said: "The decarbonisation of the food chain requires cooperation between all links in the chain. This alliance between M&S, Bartholomews Agrifood and Fertiberia shows the way forward: Fertiberia brings its Impact Zero crop nutrition solutions and the 'know how' of its R&D&I department, Bartholomews Agrifood channels and guarantees the best application of these solutions thanks to its extensive knowledge of UK farmers and ranchers, and M&S exercises leadership of the initiative to get food that drastically reduces its emissions to the end consumer, who increasingly demands products that are fully respectful of the environment."