Abstract
Nitrogen losses in agricultural systems can be reduced through enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEFs), which control the physicochemical release from fertilizers and biological nitrogen transformations in soils. The adoption of EEFs by farmers requires evidence of consistent performance across soils, crops and climates, paired with information on the economic advantages. Here we show that the benefits of EEFs due to avoided social costs of nitrogen pollution considerably outweigh their costs—and must be incorporated in fertilizer policies. We outline new approaches to the design of EEFs using enzyme inhibitors with modifiable chemical structures and engineered, biodegradable coatings that respond to plant rhizosphere signalling molecules.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council through the Industrial Transformation Research Hub (grant number IH200100023) and Linkage (grant number LP160101417) Schemes.
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S.K.L. and D.C. designed the study. S.K.L., U.W., H.-W.H., F.C., K.M., X.L. and B.M. wrote the first draft and all authors contributed to discussions and revisions of the manuscript.
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This Supplementary Information document includes Supplementary Figs. 1–3 that show the variation in the performance of EEFs with soil texture, climate zone and crop species.
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Lam, S.K., Wille, U., Hu, HW. et al. Next-generation enhanced-efficiency fertilizers for sustained food security. Nat Food 3, 575–580 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00542-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00542-7
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