A promising new form of ammonium phosphate fertilizer has been field-tested by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers. The fertilizer, struvite, offers a triple win for sustainability and crop production, as it recycles nutrients from wastewater streams, reduces leaching of phosphorus and nitrogen in agricultural soils, and maintains or improves soybean yield compared to conventional phosphorus fertilizers
“There have been some lab and greenhouse projects showing the potential of struvite, but this is the first field-scale assessment of nutrient loss and yield benefits together,” said principal investigator Andrew Margenot, associate professor and faculty Extension specialist in the Department of Crop Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I. “We found that struvite can be a full substitute for monoammonium phosphate (MAP) or diammonium phosphate (DAP) for soybeans yield-wise, and it reduces nonpoint source nutrient losses relative to conventional fertilizer options”
published in the Journal of Environmental Quality
