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We Fund Pioneering Research
We Invest in the Scientific Workforce
We Collaborate to Address Climate Change
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Our Consortia
The Ecosystem Services Market Research Consortium is conducting the research necessary to create a functional ecosystem services market, which pays farmers and ranchers for adopting conservation practices.
The IIC accelerates the development and adoption of novel water and energy-efficient irrigation technologies and practices through public-private partnerships.
Crops of the Future, a public-private collaborative, expands our knowledge of the traits that give rise to characteristics crops need to adapt to a changing future.
The International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA) advances research on antimicrobial stewardship in animal agriculture. This public-private partnership promotes the judicious use of antibiotics and improves animal welfare.
Precision Indoor Plants (PIP), a public-private partnership, helps food producers grow flavorful, nutritious food indoors. The consortium’s audacious research increases our ability to produce quality crops that are valuable and desired by consumers.
The Consortium for Innovation in Post-Harvest Loss & Food Waste Reduction is a team of global experts that aim to preserve nutrients, improve livelihoods and realize an efficient food system.
The Greener Cattle Initiative is an industry-oriented research consortium that will award approximately $5 million over the next five years to support research to mitigate enteric methane emissions from cattle. This audacious consortium provides global nutrition while also curbing the escalating climate crisis.
The Hemp Research Consortium fosters a deeper understanding of the relationship between genes, physiology and the environment to optimize industrial hemp production.
The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is a public-private partnership that funds research to advance enhanced efficiency and novel fertilizer products and practices that are environmentally beneficial and agronomically productive.
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About

Efficient Fertilizer Consortium

The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is a public-private partnership that funds research to advance enhanced efficiency and novel fertilizer products and practices that are environmentally beneficial and agronomically productive.

Working to Address the Global Fertilizer Challenge

Program Contact

Dr. Sarah Lyons
slyons@foundationfar.org

Development Contact

Sergio Furman
sfurman@foundationfar.org

View the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium white paper for more background and detailed information about enhanced efficiency and novel fertilizer technologies.

Download a short summary of the white paper.

Why the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is Needed

Numerous innovative fertilizer products are currently available; however, there is a lack of rigorous scientific evidence validating the efficacy of these products despite positive agronomic and environmental claims. With increasing pressure to mitigate nutrient loss while maintaining or increasing crop yields, farmers need accurate, science-based information about products and practices that work in a range of different farm systems and climates to make informed nutrient management decisions. Increasing fertilizer use efficiency through new technology and best nutrient management practices is an important lever to reduce the impact of fertilizer shortages on food security now and into the future with important environmental co-benefits including reducing nitrous oxide pollution.

Research Focus

The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is funding research that will help farmers use novel and current fertilizers more efficiently, improve soil fertility, decrease input costs, reduce nitrous oxide emissions, and improve global food security.

Background and Research Priorities

The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is part of the Global Fertilizer Challenge, an international effort to strengthen food security and reduce agricultural emissions, launched by President Biden in 2022 at the Major Economies Forum.

The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium is a 4.5-year public-private partnership that is funding applied research that accelerates development and wider adoption of novel fertilizers that increase nutrient-use efficiency and reduce loss to the environment through nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, leaching, and/or runoff. The Consortium is a vehicle for collaboration and exposure to new ideas that also leverages resources, de-risks research and development, and accelerates solutions for end users.

Research priorities include:

Improve nutrient management, increase fertilizer efficiency, and develop fertilizer alternatives to alleviate pressure on both food and fertilizer supply as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Quantify the environmental impact of current and novel fertilizers, provide support for farmers and retailers making management decisions, and conduct independent assessments to ground industry claims.
Improve emissions factors for nitrogen fertilizers to distinguish alternative types and managements and improve accuracy in government and corporate emissions reporting.
Advance the development of alternative fertilizers to improve efficiency and global access.
Establish common protocols for field trials looking at agronomic performance and environmental impact.
Conduct field trials to evaluate enhanced efficiency fertilizers and novel products across a range of geographic locations, climates, soil types and cropping systems.