The development of technology to link nutrient advice to a sustainable, independent and unbiased fertiliser planning tool

在所有作物投入决策中，对作物的化肥投入通常产生最大的产量和质量增加，但它们也是与作物生产相关的温室气体(GHG)排放的最大(50%)贡献者。然而，农作物生产行业在将数百种可用化肥产品与作物的营养需求相匹配方面非常糟糕，这导致产量和利润的损失、温室气体排放的增加以及氨排放和硝酸盐淋失等其他污染。使化肥产品与作物需求相匹配是非常具有挑战性的，因为作物对12种基本营养素的需求差异很大，而且现有的化肥产品种类繁多，含有不同比例的不同营养物质。一家新成立的公司“指南针农艺学”将领导开发第一个工具，该工具确定最佳肥料产品选择，既能最大化毛利，又能最大限度地减少温室气体排放和其他污染物。优化经济和碳指标的能力是该工具的一个特别创新和独特的特点。化肥优化器工具将根据不同的产出指标对化肥产品进行排名：毛利率、温室气体排放量、氨排放量、硝酸盐淋失风险和磷酸盐流失。该工具将使各种企业能够从新冠肺炎的影响中恢复过来，方法包括：i)农场企业减少不必要的肥料成本，实现更高的作物产量和质量；ii)化肥分销商和制造商拥有可信的证据，销售技术上优越的、可提高作物产量和质量的肥料产品；iii)农场顾问改进和扩大他们所能提供的建议，不仅包括更准确的肥料建议，以实现毛利最大化，而且还有助于优化产品选择，以最大限度地减少温室气体和其他污染物。该工具将在线访问，因此这些建议可以在农民和顾问不必亲自会面的情况下做出。通过识别毛利率最高、对环境影响最小的化肥产品，该工具将确保新冠肺炎的采收过程将比以往更清洁，并有助于将作物生产转向零碳水平。除了帮助农民减少作物的碳足迹外，该工具还将帮助英国实现减少氨排放的目标，并帮助农民减少硝酸盐淋洗和磷流失的风险，这会导致水道富营养化，并花费数百万英镑从供水中清除。

Fertiliser inputs to crops usually create the largest increase in yield and quality of any of the crop input decisions but they are also the largest (\>50%) contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with crop production. However, the crop production industry is very poor at matching the hundreds of fertiliser products available with the crop's nutrient requirements which leads to loss of yield and profit, increases in GHG emissions and other pollution such as ammonia emissions and nitrate leaching. Matching fertiliser product with crop requirement is very challenging because of the wide variation in crop requirement for the 12 essential nutrients and the wide range of fertiliser products available that contain different nutrients at different ratios. New start-up company 'Compass Agronomy' will lead the development of the first tool that identifies the optimum fertiliser product choice for both maximising gross margin and minimising GHG emissions and other pollutants. Ability to optimise both economic and carbon metrics is a particularly innovative and unique feature of the tool. The 'Fertiliser Optimiser tool' will rank fertiliser products for different output metrics: gross margin, GHG emissions, ammonia emissions, risk of nitrate leaching and phosphate run-off. The tool will enable a wide range of businesses to recover from the impact of COVID-19 by enabling: i) farm businesses to reduce unnecessary fertiliser costs and achieve greater crop yield and quality, ii) fertiliser distributors and manufacturers to have the trusted evidence to sell technically superior fertiliser products that increase the yield and quality of crops, iii) farm advisors to improve and expand the advice they can offer to not only include more accurate fertiliser recommendations to maximise gross margin, but also to optimise product choice to minimise GHGs and other pollutants. The tool will be accessible on-line, so these recommendations can be made without farmers and advisors having to physically meet. By identifying fertiliser products, which provide both the greatest gross margin and lowest environmental impact, the tool will ensure the recovery from COVID-19 will be cleaner than before and help transition crop production towards carbon net zero. In addition to helping farmers to reduce the carbon foot print of their crops, the tool will help the UK reach its target of reducing ammonia emissions, and help farmers reduce the risk of nitrate leaching and phosphorus run-off which cause eutrophication of water courses and cost millions of pounds to remove from water supplies.