Challenges and Potential Solutions to Improve Fertilizer Use Efficiency and Reduce Agricultural GHG Emissions

It plays a fundamental role in the biochemical and physiological functions of the plant.1,2 Consequently, nitrogen fertilizer application has become an indispensable and unavoidable part of crop production systems, helping to provide adequate food and nutritional security for the world’s growing population. [...] 2 Compared to other fertilizers such as phosphorus and potassium, nitrogen is widely used in the Canadian Prairies as it is considered the most important nutrient to improve a plant’s biochemical and physiological functions, proper plant growth and development and improvement in yield quantity and quality. [...] The nutrient uptake efficiency is the ability of plants to take up nutrient from the soil, while nutrient utilization efficiency describes the capability of plants to assimilate and remobilize nutrient within the plant (Anas et al., 2020). [...] The use of controlled-slow-release N fertilizers and the application of the 4R nutrient management principles are considered the best current techniques to increase nutrient use efficiency (NUE). [...] The potential for toxicity of various types of nanomaterials and the health and safety are subject of ongoing research.