In 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that 12.8 billion tons of
nitrogen fertilizer costing more than $ 800 million were added to fields that produce corn, cotton, grains and other commodity crops.
Farmers raising a nitrogen - hungry crop like sweet corn may save up to half of
their nitrogen fertilizer cost.
Paul says «Why are
nitrogen fertilizers costs up so much?
Not exact matches
The project will look for synergies between water and
nitrogen inputs, quantifying the rate and timing of
nitrogen supply through mineralization; assessing the
cost effectiveness of enhanced efficiency
fertilizers; and evaluating new digital, precision and spatial technologies.
Pea crops require very little
nitrogen fertilizer as a result, which reduces energy
cost and greenhouse emissions.
It is often compared to the
nitrogen - rich
fertilizer urea, except in liquid form and
cost - free.
Crops that produce more
nitrogen will require less
fertilizer, thus lowering production
costs and reducing the potential for runoff that can impact the environment, according to Subramanian.
The opportunities for improvement are even greater in rapidly developing economies such as China, which now uses much more
nitrogen and phosphorus
fertilizer much less efficiently than either the United States or Europe, and at a much higher
cost in pollution and human health.
Corn is among the most intensive uses of
fertilizer, both per acre and in total use, and represents a significant opportunity for
nitrogen use efficiencies that could reduce emissions as well as farmers» input
costs while maintaining yields.
«The MSU - EPRI methodology allows farmers to be paid to reduce their use of
nitrogen fertilizer, while assisting other carbon market participants to reduce emissions more
cost effectively than otherwise would be possible,» said Adam Diamant, technical executive at EPRI and a co-author of the new ACR methodology.
Skyrocketing
fertilizer costs making up the bulk of recent increases in wheat production
costs, and the
cost of
fertilizers is largely tied to the
cost of natural gas (production of
nitrogen - based
fertilizers consumes a considerable amount of natural gas).