Agronomic benefits
The EU Vision for Agriculture and Food acknowledges farmers as key actors of the agri-food system. It is crucial to enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the agricultural sector to face global geopolitical and economic challenges.
Nutrients Use efficiency:
Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) is a critical measure in agriculture, indicating how effectively crops utilise applied nitrogen. Nitrification and urease inhibitors play a significant role in enhancing NUE by reducing nitrogen losses and improving nitrogen availability to crops:
- Reduction of nitrogen losses from mineral and organic nitrogen containing fertilisers, contributing to reducing the volumes of fertilisers applied.
- Nitrification inhibitors enable prolonged uptake of ammonium nitrogen in the root zone, thereby improving plant nitrogen nutrition.
- Nitrification inhibitors increase the availability of phosphate and some important trace elements for plants.
- Both urease and nitrification inhibitors ensure that nitrogen is available to plants over an extended period. This leads to more efficient nitrogen uptake and utilisation by crops.
Improved Return on investments:
- Nitrogen fertilisers containing urease and nitrification inhibitors allow for higher yields compared to standard fertilisers, or the same yields with reduced nitrogen input. This directly translates to increased revenue for farmers.
- Improved nitrogen management reduces the risk of crop failure due to nutrient deficiencies or environmental stressors. This stability can lead to more predictable and reliable return on investments and higher quality of harvested crops.
- Sustainable farming practices, including the use of inhibitors, can attract market premiums for crops.
- Using nitrogen stabilisers helps farmers and the EU member States comply with environmental regulations by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen leaching.
Simplified farm management:
Using nitrification and urease inhibitors can simplify farm management in several ways:
- Urease and nitrification Inhibitors slow down the conversion processes of nitrogen, ensuring a more prolonged availability of nitrogen in the soil. This allows farmers to reduce the frequency of fertiliser applications, saving both time and labor.
- Urease and nitrification inhibitors are a very easy tool to use since these stabilisers can be mixed with fertilisers or applied directly to the soil. This straightforward method makes them more accessible to farmers.
- Thanks to stabilisers , nitrogen losses and leaching are minimised. This leads to more predictable nitrogen availability, making it easier for farmers to manage their nitrogen inputs and optimise crop nutrition.
- Stabilisers allow flexibility in their application since they can be used independently from weather conditions.
- Incorporating stabilisers into farm management practices supports sustainable agriculture. This can enhance farms’ reputation and open up opportunities for market premiums and Carbon certifications.