Objective 1: Develop a platform that will integrate existing soil chemical, physical, and biological properties data and methodologies to develop nutrient management recommendations.

Deliverables:

• Generation of nutrient availability maps for Brazil and US (similar to ISDASoils, currently available in Africa) as an API.
• Database of soil fertility information available for future research needs.
• Integration of legacy data and current fertilizer recommendation methodologies.

 Objective 2: Develop site-specific nutrient management recommendations based on soil property maps and nutrient removal measurements.

Deliverables

• Standardized procedure for creating yield/productivity maps for processing data from single-combine and multi-combine harvest operations on corn, soybean, and cotton fields for use by researchers, farmers, and agricultural service providers.
• Nutrient demand maps and estimated nutrient balances for corn, soybean, and cotton production systems.
• API that generates management zone boundaries to site-specific nutrient management recommendations in US and Brazil to best identify management zones where fertilizer rates may be reduced.

Objective 3: Evaluate the utility of the tools developed in Obj. 2 to ensure they match the needs of farmers, agronomists, and other stakeholders.

Deliverables

• Guidance on recommendation tool formatting from focus groups of farmers, agronomists, and other stakeholders.
• Evaluation of tool usability from user study and assessment of how new nutrient management recommendations best fit within existing cropping systems.

See also Science for Success funded by the Soybean Checkoff Board

Objectives

1. Conduct a comprehensive review of the literature which will (a) identify agronomic, environmental, and economic limitations of currently available nutrient sources and (b) provide a framework for designing and evaluating new nutrient formulations.
2. Develop standardized protocols for evaluation of new fertilizer products to evaluate their effects on crop nutrient use efficiency, production costs, and environmental and human health impacts; these protocols will be designed to proceed from the laboratory to greenhouse to field scales.
3. Increase the transportation and application characteristics of different organomineral formulations by addition of nutrients and additives (e.g. polymers, clay, organic substances) during the granulation process.
4. Enhance the agronomic crop productivity and environmental impact characteristics of different organomineral formulations by addition of biostimulants and/or microbial inhibitors.
5. Carry out a socioeconomic and environmental assessment of the technology using the standardized protocol develop under Objective 2 to determine economic feasibility, agronomic potential, and environmental impacts of new fertilizer products.

Deliverables

1. Bibliographic review on mineral and organic fertilizer sources and biologically active materials for production of organomineral fertilizers. The project literature review will determine previous research on the combination of organic and mineral fertilizer sources with and without biostimulent compounds into one produce, the types and amounts of organic material and biostimulent compounds will be determined, and availability and use of these products in the US, Brazil, and other countries will be evaluated.
2. Current protocols for agronomic and environmental evaluation will be combined with protocols developed for this project at the laboratory, greenhouse, and field scales. These protocols will combine two evaluations (agronomic and environmental) that are not currently combined with addition of recently developed methods and equipment into a protocol that would standardize the methods used and data collected to evaluate fertilizer use efficiency and environmental impact for current and future fertilizers used in different locations, soils, and production systems.
3. Organic materials, mineral fertilizer sources, and biostimulents chosen for evaluation in the project will be determined during the product development phase from a list of materials and sources in the literature review based on nutrient content, and availability in the US, Brazil, and other countries. Organomineral fertilizers developed during this project will be evaluated at the greenhouse and field scale.
4. Documentation of production process of organomineral fertilizer on a small batch and industrial scale.