Highlights:
- Directly addressing challenges in nutrient loss reductions through government agencies requires specific structuring of financial research support.
- Practice-based innovations by farmers, agronomists, and scientists require system- and region-specific evidence to inform decision-making.
- The 4R Research Fund exemplifies how focused funding opportunities can deliver advancements in an intended discipline like fertilizer and nutrient use.
Specific challenges in agriculture require targeted efforts to address them. Challenges facing fertilizer and plant nutrient management are no different. Targeted efforts toward regional water quality issues, such as in the Western Lake Erie Basin, require system- and region-specific solutions. Evidence of this exists in 4R Nutrient Stewardship management strategies, which have been shown to reduce nutrient losses to surface waters.
Since its inception in 2013, the 4R Research Fund has supported more than $19 million in nutrient management research, with $9.2 million invested directly from the fertilizer industry and more than $10 million in leveraged funds. Each round of competitively-funded projects included a targeted approach to identify a knowledge gap, quantify nutrient losses, and identify technologies and practices that reduced losses and optimized use. The most recent project supported by the 4R Research Fund, led by the University of Minnesota, uses empirical research to assess system susceptibility to phosphorus losses and updates recommendations for agriculture in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba.
Focused science is not the final step in addressing a challenge. Insights and results should be directed toward stakeholders. In 2019, the 4R Research Fund-supported Nutri-Net collaboration delivered nitrogen management insights to 1,900 agronomists, farmers, and stakeholders where project findings and investigator expertise can be applied.
How can this model of addressing specific challenges exist in federal research policy?
It starts with the infrastructure present in the U.S. Farm Bill. In the 2018 Farm Bill (H.R.2), a Fertilizer Management Initiative was created to “improve fertilizer use efficiency in crops to maximize crop yield and minimize nutrient losses” by prioritizing “research examining the impact of the source, rate, timing, and placement.”
Within the USDA-NIFA competitive grants programs from 2010 to 2020, $15.2 million were awarded to 27 projects focusing on at least one component of source, rate, time, and placement of fertilizer or manure management. However, only a handful of these projects focused on reducing nutrient losses and optimizing production.
The next step is appropriating specific federal funds to these areas in annual budgets. This allows a long-term support for scientists to seek funding and work toward the targeted issues. In July, the House of Representatives expressed support for 4R Research by including $1 million in the Fiscal Year 2021 House Agriculture Appropriations Bill. FAR and The Fertilizer Institute are calling on the Senate to pass similar funding and solidify this opportunity for researchers.
Progress in solving critical agricultural and environmental challenges surrounding crop nutrients can be attained through targeted support for research. The alignment of public and private investment in research provides the best chance to solve critical research needs that benefit American agriculture.