In an era where sustainability and efficiency are more important than ever, precision nutrient management is revolutionising crop production. Not to mention, food shortages and escalating prices are constant issues with global political and economic implications.

Natural nutrient sources and recycling have proven insufficient to meet increasing human needs since the 19th century. For agricultural sciences throughout the 20th century, soil fertility and plant nutrition remained a central tenet. With the current focus on sustainability and limited natural resources, soil fertility and nutrition will get more attention.

While something like the Green Revolution increased food production, it came with increased fertiliser use. More people needed to be fed, and farmers had to grow as much as possible quickly. That demand will increase, and keeping pace needs careful nutrient management.

Why it's needed

Let's set the basics first. Fertilisers provide crops with the nutrients needed to grow properly and produce higher yields. They help replenish essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, often called NPK (the first letters of their chemical symbols).

Over the past several decades, intensive agricultural practices and increased fertiliser use have negatively impacted the environment. While they're seen as essential in some ways, their environmental impact is hard to ignore. While they boost food production, they also contribute to water pollution and soil degradation. In regions like the UK, US, and EU, this is driving new policies and debate. For example, the EU's Farm to Fork initiative aims to reduce fertiliser use.

It should be said there are organic fertilisers like compost, manure, and bio-fertilisers. These are sustainable alternatives and improve soil health over time. They are slower in releasing nutrients but help in regenerative agriculture and reduce reliance on chemical inputs.

Synthetic or chemical fertilisers are produced through industrial processes and offer quick and targeted nutrient delivery. While they're the most widely used, production is energy-intensive and contributes to greenhouse emissions. According to some estimates, the production and use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser alone is estimated to account for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Nutrient management

Precision nutrient management is a form of precision agriculture. It can contribute to long-term sustainability agriculture. The goal is to know the crop and soil characteristics and to optimise the production inputs. The most important is nutrients.

The usual practice is to apply nutrients at one rate throughout the farming area. This could lead to the wastage of resources, environmental pollution, and economic inefficiency. On the other hand, precision nutrient management includes applying nutrients based on site-specific recommendations. You could call it "spoon-feeding" the crops to help keep nutrients in the right place and at the right time. Here are some of the ways it's done:

Sensors: Sensors make it easier to determine the right areas to focus on. Several types of optical sensors exist, including multispectral and hyperspectral sensors. Remote sensing, which uses satellite and drone imagery, is also available.

Variable Rate: This allows for the application of fertilisers at different rates based on real-time data. It's a targeted approach to ensure every area of the field gets the right amount of nutrients.

Controlled release: The nutrients are released gradually over a period of time to ensure a constant supply of essential elements and mitigate the possibility of nutrient runoffs.

The issue of nutrient imbalance is often invisible to political and policy debates, or they're low on the agenda. But they can't afford to be and shouldn't continue to be this way. There are ways to change this line of thinking and bring it to the fore. Here are a few:

Regulatory coherence: The nutrient issue affects various policy domains – health, water, food systems, energy, economics, biodiversity, etc. Nutrition management needs a multi-sector transdisciplinary systems-wide approach.

Increase capacity of farmers: Healthy soil provides healthy food. Famers should have an increased capacity to manage soil health. Examples are best practices in fertiliser application, integration of cover crops, and incentivisation of water conservation practices.

The circularity challenge: Some technologies can recover nutrients from wastewater. It's necessary to consider all possible options to recover nutrients, develop them at scale and make them market-ready.

If existing technologies and best practices are properly used, the world can reduce nutrient losses by 50% from agriculture by 2030 without compromising food security. At Smart Grow Farms, we recognise the importance of nutrients and the role they play in sustainable farming. We're committed to learning and showcasing how nutrient management tools and practices benefit everyone.