Crop Nutrient Requirements and Advanced Fertilizer Management Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

From an estimated 7.8 billion people worldwide in 2021, projections indicate global population growth to around 8.5 billion by 2030, and to almost 10.0 billion by 2050. As a result, the challenge for the coming decades will be to ensure long-term food security of the ever-growing world population by increasing crop productivity using sustainable agricultural practices, whilst at the same time maintaining soil health and preserving the quality of the environment. This must be accomplished in the context of the shrinking availability of arable land and shortage of fossil fuels. However, crop production depends on several interrelated agronomic factors, such as soil (e.g., pH, texture, organic matter content, water holding capacity, mineral composition and nutrient availability, etc.), plant genetic material, crop management, and several other biotic and abiotic factors. The role of roots which has often been neglected should also be taken into consideration for better resource acquisition. Apart from soil testing and nutrient removal by harvestable products which are traditionally used to derive the amounts of nutrients required by the crop, root system architecture (RSA),and root system morphology (RSM) will also play a crucial role in our understanding on how roots capture heterogeneously distributed or limited resources while maintaining whole plant performance. Crop nutrition and balanced fertilization (both from inorganic and organic sources) are considered among the primary actions towards satisfactory crop growth and production while decreasing production costs. Balanced fertilization refers to the application of plant nutrients in optimum quantities and in the right proportions through appropriate methods and at the right times for a specific crop’s needs and agroclimatic conditions. In this context, the development of novel and sophisticated fertilization practices is the challenge for future nutrient management that helps to improve crop Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE), maintain adequate levels of soil nutrients, and prevent deficiencies, imbalance or overuse of fertilizers, leading to economic and environmental benefits. However, crop-specific information on nutrient management, including diverse nutrient sources as part of an integrated nutrient management as well as improving NUE by developing novel and practical fertilizer recommendations for farmers, needs to be further explored under diverse pedoclimatic environments.

The focus of this Special Issue is on nutrient use efficiency (NUE)-related parameters in arable cropping systems, from the agronomic perspective to environmental considerations. Moreover, it will focus on the physiological basis of genotypic differences in the uptake and utilization of key nutrients and provide demonstrated experimental data in order to optimize fertilizer management. The role of roots will also be taken into account as key parameters for improving NUE, especially under field conditions, which is central but still under debate. It will provide a better understanding of how crop plants acquire water and nutrients through their roots and maintain growth and performance under diverse pedoclimatic conditions. Finally, we will try to identify the barriers that exist to the improvement of nutrient management and which interventions can lead farmers along pathways towards adoption of novel and more profitable and sustainable fertilization strategies.

With the rising costs of inorganic fertilizers due to a shortage of fossil fuels and the negative environmental impacts of excessive fertilization, this Special Issue will provide some evidence of the usefulness of improving fertilizer use efficiency of crops, thus ensuring enough food of acceptable quality, taking into account environmental considerations.

We welcome original and novel research articles and reviews on all aspects of arable crop NUE and advanced fertilization management which will improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the nutrient uptake, as well as the complex interactions between soil, water and root growth for efficient resource capture linked to whole plant crop performance.

Dr. Christos Noulas
Dr. Shahram Torabian
Dr. Ruijun Qin
Guest Editors

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