Atmospheric nitrous oxide concentrations have been increasing since the industrial revolution and currently account for 6% of total anthropogenic radiative forcing. Microbial production in soils is the dominant nitrous oxide source; this has increased with increasing use of nitrogen fertilizers. However, fertilizer use alone cannot account for the historical trends of atmospheric concentrations...

Nitrogen is one of major contaminants in wastewater; however, nitrogen, as bio-elements for crop growth, is the indispensable fertilizer in agriculture. In this study, two-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were first operated with microorganisms in anode chamber and potassium ferricyanide as catholyte. After being successfully startup, the two-chamber MFCs were re-constructed to three-chamber...

Tillage practices and nitrogen (N) sources are important factors affecting rice production. Few studies, however, have examined the interactions between tillage practices and N fertilizer sources on NH3 volatilization, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and rice grain yield. This study aimed to investigate the effects of N fertilizer sources (no N fertilizer, inorganic N fertilizer, organic N ferti...

Land-use conversion from woodlands to tea fields in subtropical areas of central China leads to increased nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, partly due to increased nitrogen fertilizer use. A field investigation of N2O using a static closed chamber-gas chromatography revealed that the average N2O fluxes in tea fields with 225 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) fertilizer application were 9.4 ± 6.2 times higher tha...

• Session 1: Objectives, outcomes, and trade-offs associated with alternative fertilizer promotion programmes. • Session 2: What determines the cost of fertilizer at the farm gate? Cost build-up analysis (Bumb, g p y (IFDC) • Session 3: Fertilizer profitability analysis (Rashid and Jayne, IFPRI/MSU) • Session 4: Experiences and lessons learned with alternative fertilizer promotion efforts (Mino...

I ntercropping—growing two or more crops at the same time on a single field—is an ancient practice still used in much of the developing world. For example, in Africa, corn (Zea mays L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), or millet (Panicum and Pennisetum spp.) are grown with pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp), pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.), or beans (...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emission from grassland-based agriculture is an important source of atmospheric N2O. It is hence crucial to explore various solutions including farm nitrogen (N) management to mitigate N2O emissions without sacrificing farm profitability and food supply. This paper reviews major N management practices to lower N2O emission from grassland-based agriculture. Restricted grazing...

Globally, agriculture depends on industrial nitrogen fertilizer to improve crop growth. Fertilizer production consumes fossil fuels and contributes environmental pollution. A potential solution would be harness nitrogenases—enzymes capable of converting atmospheric N 2 NH 3 in ambient conditions. It is therefore a major goal synthetic biology engineer functional nitrogenases into plants, or bac...

Fertilizer application control in reason is the key technology to improve operation quality, reduce fertilizer pollution, and cut down costs of production. A control system of variable rate fertilizer is developed based on microcontroller chip in the paper. The system can automatically control flow dosage by adjusting feed gate opening size and changing hydraulic motor speed of fertilizer conve...