Dr. Craig Drury, a soil biochemist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is conducting research to devise soil and crop care methods that reduce ammonia volatilization and nitrous oxide emissions while augmenting soil health and crop yields.
His goal is to develop strategies that allow producers to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by 30% by 2030, and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
“Adaptation of nutrient management and conservation practices to field soil conditions is crucial to maintaining high yields without undue losses,” said Drury. “We now have tools that can help slow down the enzyme and microbial transformations that occur after fertilizer is applied, reduce nitrogen losses to air and water and increase nitrogen uptake by crops.”
He outlined several practices that will enable farmers to make farm management decisions which help make fertilizer work harder in ways that benefit both the crops and the surrounding ecosystem.
- Conservation agriculture practices – Improved soil carbon from cover crops, diverse crop rotations and conservation tillage can help crops under adverse weather conditions like drought or excessive rain and help reduce N losses.
- Double-slot injection – Double-slot injection is a fertilization technique in which fertilizer is injected through two slots that can increase corn grain yields and reduce emissions. Utilization of double-slot injection has resulted in an increase of corn grain yields by 12% to 13%. It can also reduce emissions of nitrous oxide and ammonia.
Craig Drury
“We recommend the newly developed double-slot injection system for conventional tillage without cover crops and we can also adapt these treatments for managing nitrogen application in a cover crop and conservation tillage planting,” said Drury.
- Split N application – Split N application is a nutrient management practice that breaks with the traditional method of applying the entire N supply in a single pass prior to planting. Split N involves dividing the total amount of N fertilizer into multiple applications. This approach can improve nutrient efficiency and reduce N loss caused by volatilization, leaching and denitrification.
“Split nitrogen application can improve your yields and also your profits,” Drury said.
- Urease & nitrification inhibitors – Urease and nitrification inhibitors are chemical compounds used by farmers to slow down the microbial transformations of N in soil. These chemicals inhibit the enzyme urease and the bacteria responsible for nitrification, which reduces N losses from the soil while improving fertilizer efficiency.
“By delaying the breakdown of urea into ammonia and the conversion of ammonium to nitrate, these inhibitors allow plants a longer period of time to absorb the nitrogen before it is lost to the environment,” he explained.
by Enrico Villamaino
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