Enhanced efficiency fertilizers

Abstract

World food security is challenged by many issues, including weather and climate variability, degraded soils and persistent poverty. To address these problems, we must look for solutions to reduce the delivered cost of agricultural inputs-especially fertilizer-that improve stakeholder returns and promote agricultural intensification. Improving fertilizer use efficiency by reducing nutrient losses is a critical step towards increasing soil fertility and agricultural productivity for poor farmers. This paper presents results from both field and greenhouse studies that illustrate the use of improved management practices, such as fertigation and deep placement of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), and use of innovative new modified fertilizers that increase nutrient use efficiency (NUE). The results show how the controlled delivery of nutrients, where nutrient delivery is synchronized to crop demand, creates opportunities to increase yields and improve NUE.