* Articles taken from Better Crops with Plant Food - XCI (91) 2007, No. 4
Right Product, Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place... the Foundation of BMPs for Fertilizer
by Terry L. Roberts
The concept of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) is not a new one. First introduced almost 20 years ago, scientists at the Potash & Phosphate Institute (PPI) defined BMPs as those practices which have been proven in research and tested through farmer implementation to give optimum production potential, input efficiency, and environmental protection (PPI, 1989; Griffith and Murphy, 1991). Today, the emphasis appears to be more on environmental protection than optimal production potential as current definitions suggest BMPs are practical management practices or systems designed to reduce soil loss and mitigate adverse environmental effects on water quality caused by nutrients, animal wastes, and sediments.
Best Management Practices to Minimize Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Fertilizer Use
North America
by C.S. Snyder, T.W. Bruulsema, and T.L. Jensen
Climate change and global warming continue to be topics of considerable scientific debate and public concern. Increasingly, agriculture is viewed as a large contributor to GHG emissions which drive GWP, and fertilizer N use has been identified as a major factor. This paper presents a review of the scientific literature on the impacts of fertilizer use and management on GHG emissions, and represents a brief overview of the current science.
