Initial VFRC Focus
The fertilizer industry emphasizes the improvement of industrial
production technologies for current fertilizers, while agronomic
research by the private and public sector on application methods
of mineral and recycled fertilizers is abundant. VFRC therefore
emphasizes its scientific explorations for arriving at innovative fertilizer
products and technologies to the following four components.
Uptake
Packaging
Tuning the type, amount and timing of nutrients to plants’ ecophysiological needs calls for understanding uptake mechanisms
that include excretion of exudates, interactions with microorganisms and entry points of nutrients into the plant, along with
nutrient dynamics and metabolic processes during crop growth.
The chemical format in which nutrients are “packaged” as
fertilizers has to advance from purely physicochemical processes
to advanced chemistry, bio-chemistry and bio-nano-chemistry to
better suit the uptake mechanisms and metabolic processes of the
plant while not harming soil-plant-microbe interactions.
Delivery
The insights on uptake and packaging will allow exploitation of all
feasible mechanisms for delivering nutrients to the plant, including
roots, leaves, stems and seeds.
Context
Auxiliary information about geo-spatial soil physical and chemical
properties, weather conditions and the cropping system will support
the optimal use of innovative fertilizer products.
Seven-weeks-old soybean plants foliar-treated with different crop nutrition products
including, differently packaged micronutrients, to evaluate effects on growth, yield
and nutritional content.
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