INVESTMENT IN MANUFACTURING AND KNOWLEDGE IS HELPING MAKE AMMONIUM NITRATE FERTILISERS FIT FOR A CARBON-FOCUSED FUTURE The carbon footprint of all agricultural practices is under the spotlight as never before, and with Nitrogen fertiliser one of the mainstays of production, it is not surprising much debate continues around the use of manufactured N.
Navigating through the often conflicting demands of population growth, food production needs and environmental requirements is far from easy, says Dr. George Fisher of CF Fertilisers.
efficiency from every hectare possible will be greater than ever.
Fertilisers can double crop yields It’s an unavoidable fact that over the last 60 years, Nitrogen application has driven the food production revolution, Dr Fisher says that, without fertilisers, the world would only be able to feed about half of its people. Modern fertilisers can double crop yields.
Research data from trials
Dr. George Fisher of CF Fertilisers.
“It’s a balance between using Nitrogen as efficiently as possible onfarm to produce the food we need, whilst making sure this is done in such a way to limit harm to the environment with products that are manufactured as cleanly as possible. “Over the next 50 years global population will increase by 30% to 9 Billion people, food production will need to double to feed an increasingly hungry world and the demands placed on farmers and growers will be unprecedented. “Yet, all this is happening against a backdrop of growing awareness of the need for us all to limit our impact on the environment, cut back significantly on greenhouse gas emissions and manage the world’s finite resources more carefully. “And with climate change reducing the area of land in temperate areas where current food crops can grow, the need to achieve the highest food production
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In practice, fertiliser is a crucial element to achieving profitable crop yields. CF trials consistently show optimum N applications producing over 5.0t/ ha more wheat compared to zero N application plots. “For example, in milling wheat trials carried out by arable research contractors Armstrong Ltd, applying zero N to trial plots produced 4.2 t/ha whereas applying the optimum N rate of 254kg N/ha produced 10.4t/ha. “Whilst optimum N rates are key, the type of fertiliser used can also have a profound effect on how it is utilised by plants. “It’s important to ensure that as much as possible of every kg of Nitrogen fertiliser applied ends up in plants to produce food and is not lost from the system in terms of leaching or loss to the air.”
Nitrogen fertiliser use efficiency (NfUE) critical metric
emissions, he explains. “NfUE gives growers a clearer picture of the impact their fertiliser choices are having on their production efficiency and can highlight where potential environmental concerns might result. “In simple terms, it allows us to review the amount of Nitrogen applied to crops and calculate how much is actually recovered by the crop. “Efficiency values for crops typically range between 50% to 80% but it is clear that better quality, AN based solid fertilisers are at the top end of this scale whereas urea-based products, including liquids and blends, tend to be at the lower end.” In independent trials, Nitram (34.5% N) outperformed straight urea in terms of NfUE across all trials conducted in two very different production years and at all yield levels, Dr. Fisher points out. “Looking at the data from six trials shows an average NfUE for the AN of 74% compared to 66% for urea. “This difference of 8% NfUE is the equivalent of an additional 16% total loss of Nitrogen from urea and in crops. With an application rate of 200kg/ha N this would be equivalent to a loss of 32kg/ha N. “In other words, using Nitram resulted in crops recovering an extra 16% or 32kg/ha N than they would have done with the same application rate of urea.”
The Clean Air Strategy 2019 has focused peoples’ minds on Nitrogen fertiliser use efficiency (NfUE) with a suggested move away from urea to Ammonium Nitrate (AN) or inhibited urea products to reduce Ammonia ISSUE 10 | JULY 2020
