ChangeMAKErs - Dr. Inoka Amarakoon

Welcome to ChangeMAKErs, a new MAKEManitoba podcast series highlighting research and innovation powered by members of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.

In this episode, host and FAFS research facilitator Dr. Chantal Bassett chats with Dr. Inoka Amarakoon  Assistant Professor in the department of Soil Science. Learn about her journey to the University of Manitoba and her work in sustainable agriculture, especially in the area of manure management and soil health.

Transcript

Intro: 0:00

The way we grow and produce food is ever-changing, shaped by consumers and the climate in which we live and farm. Research at all points of our food system is essential for continuously improving food's journey from farm to table . The Manitoba Agriculture and Food Knowledge Exchange explores timely research innovations and applications that make our food system better than ever. Join us for today's podcast.

Chantal Bassett: 0:28

Hello and welcome. This is Changemakers, a Manitoba Agriculture and Food Knowledge Exchange, otherwise known as MAKE podcast series with me, Chantal Bassett. In each episode, we'll chat with an academic member of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba to find out about the research and innovation they're working on and how this is shaping agriculture and food production in Manitoba and around the world. Now, as the faculty's research facilitator, I get to work with all our incredible innovators and I think it's high time for you to also get to discover their research as well as get to know the person behind these discoveries. Today I'm joined by Dr. Inoka Amarakoon, assistant professor in the Department of Soil Science. Thanks for joining me Inoka.

Inoka Amarakoon: 1:11

Thank you for inviting me.

Chantal Bassett: 1:12

So Inoka, before we get into the details about what you study, can you please let us know, you know, how you became a professor, how you got interested in your field of research?

Inoka Amarakoon: 1:22

So I was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in a farm, looking at the agriculture every day, crop production, animal production, without me knowing about it, I had a passion and interest for agriculture. More like cropping systems, livestock included, and that eventually led me to an undergraduate in agriculture and then continued to Master's and PhD in soil science.

Chantal Bassett: 1:48

So what is it about soil science that drew you out of all of the sciences , related to agriculture,

Inoka Amarakoon: 1:54

Something that attracts to me to soil science and in agriculture is feeding the global population. Global population is currently around 8 billion people and it's continuing to increase. The arable land that can be productive is also decreasing at the same time. So we need to produce more food from less land each and every day, and majority of the food that we consume comes from the land.

Chantal Bassett: 2:23

So what did you study as a grad student?

Inoka Amarakoon: 2:25

As a grad student for my Master's here at University of Manitoba, I looked at the dynamics of phosphorus and cadmium in different crops, the crops being a flax canola and wheat.

Chantal Bassett: 2:42

And what drew you to Manitoba?

Inoka Amarakoon: 2:44

I wanted to do a graduate studies and I wanted to do a PhD and I was applying and I didn't know lots of places. And then that led me to Manitoba. I have an interest or a passion towards soil science to keep the world population fed.

Chantal Bassett: 3:02

So kind of... by having healthy soil, that's how we can grow healthy food .

Inoka Amarakoon: 3:05

Yeah. So then the way to do that is to have a healthy soil and that's key to sustainable agriculture and keep producing the food for the generations to come .

Chantal Bassett: 3:17

And so Inoka, can you tell me a bit more about the focus of your research now that you're an independent researcher?

Inoka Amarakoon: 3:24

So I will focus on my current work that I'm doing right now that's focused largely on manure management. Manure is a great resource, it has lots of nutrients and that's a way to recycle nutrients into agricultural soils. And manure is a good source of carbon. And when you recycle manure, the carbon gets back into the soil and carbon is helpful to increase the soil health . And also it can be a way of carbon sequestration in the soil, if not properly managed. The manure can be a source of contaminants too. Excess nitrogen and phosphorous can get into runoff and can be a source for the Lake Winnipeg eutrofication and also minerals can have other organic compounds such as antibiotics and steroidal hormones and metals. So my whole idea is have to do sustainable manure management for the farm economics and for the environment and also for the sustainable food production.

Chantal Bassett: 4:37

So for our listeners who might be more city dwellers like myself, can you explain, you know, kind of how a farmer does apply manure, where they access it, they distribute it on their lands. Is there any processing that needs to happen and and how does it benefit or how does it get mixed in with the soil on the land?

Inoka Amarakoon: 4:56

So manure management varies with the livestock operation. It can vary from swine production to poultry to cattle production In Manitoba, what usually happens is manure is applied in the fall and it could either be surface applied or it will be incorporated into the soil and then stays there over the winter and then it will be a fertilizer for the crop that's going to the ground in spring.

Chantal Bassett: 5:27

Inoka you mentioned kind of how manure mismanagement and how that can lead to some detrimental effects. Can you elaborate a bit more about that?

Inoka Amarakoon: 5:36

I would focus more on the ways that we can make it a very useful resource. So what we can do is that we apply the manure base on the nutrient requirement of the growing crop. And then deal with excess nutrients building up in the soil or left over excess in the soil that can be susceptible to transport with water. And also the placement can be important too, so that it'll be in the root zone of the plant, not on the surface that is also susceptible to transport.

Chantal Bassett: 6:12

So Inoka , um, can you let me know, who are members of your lab and what are they working on these days?

Inoka Amarakoon: 6:19

In order to understand the phosphorus dynamic, I have a couple of projects going on on looking at the phosphorus dynamics in prairie agriculture. 1 Master's student is looking at the phosphorus and nitrogen and metal mobilization in agricultural soils. And he's also comparing the mobilization potential between the surface applied manure and manure incorporated into the agricultural soil. Another Master's student started in September and she's working on phosphorous speciation in the soil and the dynamics among different soil phosphorous pools. Whether they are susceptible to transport, whether they are more stable in the ground. And another student is also looking at manure management and she is more focusing on contaminant transport. And another student Master's student is working on the interaction between contaminants and the organic metal fraction and the clay colloidal fraction of the soil. And I'm focusing on carbon sequestration in long-term manure agricultural soil with a new PhD student that started in September. And in that study, we want to explore the carbon sequestration potential in the soil, especially in agricultural soil. And what are the mechanisms that can lead to carbon sequestration or making carbon stable in the soil without going back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And that way we can promote management practices that is conducive to the mechanisms that are making carbon stable in the soil.

Chantal Bassett: 8:11

So the stability of the carbon in the soil actually relates to climate change, how?

Inoka Amarakoon: 8:16

The largest carbon stock is in the ocean and second largest carbon stock is in the soil. So soil is central to carbon sequestration or removal of carbon from the atmosphere. And that's what we want to mitigate climate change, reduce the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The more we can put carbon back into the soil, the more we can reduce the climate change.

Chantal Bassett: 8:45

So, but you were saying that you can get some carbon from manure but adding too much manure, there's some detriment to that, right?

Inoka Amarakoon: 8:53

Yes. That's where the management is needed and that's where the research is needed to find that sweet spot or the GOldy Locks Zone.

Chantal Bassett: 9:03

So in terms of where are you conducting this research? Is it on farmer's fields or is it at some of the university's research stations?

Inoka Amarakoon: 9:10

The research is happening at laboratory scale where we are looking at the interactions between carbon nutrients and soil colloidal fraction where soil organic matter and clay minerals are. And some of the research are taking place in agricultural fields in Manitoba and some research are taking place at University of Manitoba's GlenLea Research Station, especially the long-term manure plots.

Chantal Bassett: 9:37

Can you tell me how some of the laboratory work that you're doing is driving some discoveries that farmers can get insights from and how would they access your research?

Inoka Amarakoon: 9:47

So what we do in laboratory is trying to understand the mechanisms that we can't do it in the field because there are so many factors playing in , in the field. And then what we do is we test the fundamental mechanisms in the lab and then do a field trial to understand it with all the other environmental variables together. And in terms of knowledge transfer, we do present at scientific conferences and we do present at regional conferences such as Manitoba Soil Science annual meetings where lots of stakeholders meet every year annually. And then we do peer reviewed scientific publications and go to the extension events.

Chantal Bassett: 10:37

So Inoka, who are you collaborating with these days?

Inoka Amarakoon: 10:40

So my main research focus on these days is the manure management and for that work sustainable manure management for sustainable agriculture and also for the climate change mitigation. And for that I have great group of collaborations at University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, and also few other universities in Eastern Canada. And also I have a great support from the industry as well.

Chantal Bassett: 11:10

So Inoka, I gather, you know, you've talked about the importance of soil science research. So how do we get more students engaged in soil science research?

Inoka Amarakoon: 11:20

The value of soil as a research is increasing day by day . It has a value towards the global food production. It has a value towards climate change mitigation, and it's time now for us to understand this resource and get the benefit of the resource and save it for the future generations.

Chantal Bassett: 11:45

So you've touched a lot about sustainable agriculture. And I know for myself, like I was really glad to see that some of our national funding bodies just had a recent call related to sustainable agriculture. So what is the importance of really driving more research into sustainable agriculture?

Inoka Amarakoon: 12:05

I think now we have come to the realization that there is no other way we need to have sustainable agriculture to feed the global population continuously and also to have an impact on the climate change mitigation and also for the health and wellbeing of the people. I think soil has a larger role in climate change and it is increased, getting increasingly important as well. Soil alone will not fix the climate change, but it's a big part of the puzzle. Lots of carbon, that are now in atmosphere, were initially in the soils or in the ocean, and have escaped to the atmosphere. One potential solution among many others is to put that carbon dioxide back into the soil to reduce the atmospheric levels, sustainable agriculture, sustainable soil management, and healthy soils can serve as one of the strategy to do that. So it's the CO21 Paris Climate Change, French government proposed an annual carbon increase of 0.4% in the top soil to keep the temperature climate change below 2 degrees Celsius.

Chantal Bassett: 13:30

So a 0.4% increase, that seems fairly reasonable, but I gather there's probably some scientific challenges to that.

Inoka Amarakoon: 13:38

The reason why I do research in this area and many others is even though it seems little and simple, it's not that easy. The reason being stabilizing carbon is challenging in the soil because soil is a very dynamic system and it exchanges carbon dioxide with the atmosphere constantly. So if you wanna have a net stabilization in the soil, it's challenging. And that's why we do the research we do to understand this mechanism of carbon stabilization.

Chantal Bassett: 14:20

So Inoka, how about finishing off by telling us one thing about yourself that's unrelated to your research?

Inoka Amarakoon: 14:25

Something not related to research is, I guess I like dancing and I trained as a during my childhood too, and I enjoy all forms of styles of dancing. All forms.

Chantal Bassett: 14:38

Okay. Is there one in particular

Inoka Amarakoon: 14:41

I can't pick because , when I see another one, I think yeah, that's , it keeps changing.

Chantal Bassett: 14:47

That's a good healthy habit. Glad to see that it brings you joy. Thank you very much for chatting with me. This has been Dr. Chantell Bassett, joined by Dr. Inoka Amarakoon , assistant professor in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Manitoba. And that's it for today's episode of ChangeMAKErs, the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Research and Innovation podcast. Join me in future episodes to hear about other fascinating research being led by agricultural and AgriFood innovators at the University of Manitoba.