From genes to farms: achieving Canada's net-zero emission target with innovative OMICS sensors that lower the nitrous oxide emissions from food cropping systems

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Canada's agriculture sector generates nearly $112 billion of GDP, employs 2.3 million people and is anticipated to increase agri-food exports from $62 billion to $75 billion by 2025. However, the agricultural sector is reeling from unforeseen costs. The Russia-Ukraine conflict already caused a 4-fold price increase in synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on Canadian farms. Furthermore, farmers are profoundly worried about the government of Canada's climate plan, released in December 2020. The government plan aims to cap N fertilizer use on farms to lower nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from fertilizer to 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. As N fertilizer is essential to produce high yields of top-quality food crops, the Canadian fertilizer industry and farmer groups are openly skeptical that forcibly limiting N fertilizer use will lower greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers are looking for scientific solutions to assure they will not be unfairly penalized by Canada's net-zero emission target. They fear the government's policy will ultimately increase crop production costs. Consequently, Canadian households will pay more for food and agri-food exports will be less competitive in the global market. The core scientific issue is the uncertainty in predicting how much N fertilizer is lost from cropping systems, as direct N2O emissions from fields and indirect N2O emissions from soluble N leached into field drainage water. Our solution is flexible, innovative and nimble. We will develop new OMICS sensors, based on lab-on-a-chip design, that give a real-time, robust, farm-level assessment of the soil microbial-driven processes that produce N2O in fields and downstream environments. Data are relayed to the fertilizer application equipment, for a precision delivery of N fertilizer in the right dose and at the right time for the food crop. The team's expertise (Whalen: agronomy and soil science; Hijri: genomics and molecular biology) is complemented by international scientific collaborators with the African Genome Centre at UM6P. Complementary socio-economic assessment, in partnership with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and CEROM inc., will confirm the suitability of the OMICS sensors for widespread adoption on Canadian farms.