Yara announces findings from mineral fertilizer long-term trial

The long-term trial was conducted at Yara International’s Hanninghof research center in Dulmen, Germany, and studied the long-term effects of nutrient management in farming. The study concludes that balanced application of mineral fertilizer is part of sustainable crop production, with minimal environmental impact. Established in 1958, the LTT portrays the pivotal role of balanced nutrition in soil health maintenance. The research findings address the challenges facing the global food system, and the increasingly urgent need for effective resource management to ensure a resilient food system while protecting the environment. The relationship between nutrient application and soil fertility is best studied in LTTs because soil fertility develops gradually. Therefore, evaluating its effect on crop production requires monitoring over a long time and proper data documentation. It can take decades before changes become visible, for example, trends of crop yield and effects of the environment on agriculture or vice versa. Since agriculture is removing nutrients from the soil with each harvest, an efficient replacement of nutrients back into the soil is required to sustain crop yields. While an unbalanced application of nutrients results in low nutrient use efficiency and high environmental pollution, the Hanninghof study concludes that the best solution to achieve both effective and sustainable agriculture is a balanced combination of mineral nutrients and integration of organic fertilizer available on the farm with mineral fertilizer. Key findings from Hanninghof LTT Increased soil health: Application of mineral and organic fertilizers increased soil organic carbon compared to the treatments without any fertilizer. This was also observed in many long-term studies around the globe; e.g., in Magruder LTT at Oklahoma, Aula et al. reported a significant increase in soil organic carbon content through the application of either nitrogen and phosphorus, or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium combined compared to plots without any fertilizer. Increased water use efficiency: The use of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium fertilizer resulted in the highest water use efficiency compared to omitting nutrients or using just manure alone. Omitting nutrients decreased water use efficiency by up to 63%. Improved profitability: Application of the mineral nutrients; nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium fertilizers as a balanced nutrition resulted in the highest yield and income of crop. Omitting nutrients reduced crop yield and resulted in an economic loss of between 89 and 812 USD per hectare