BASF: The 4R’s has been A Good Start but Embracing Stabilized Nitrogen Fertilizers is the Next Big Step Change

Urease Inhibitor	Active Ingredient	Formulation
	NBPT	Agrotain (Koch)
	2-NPT
	NBPT NPPT	Limus (BASF)
Nitrification Inhibitor
	DCD	AgRho NH4 Protect (Solvay)
	Nitrapyrin	N-Serve (Corteva) Instinct (Corteva)
	DCD + 1,2,4 Triazol 1,2,4 Triazol + 3-MP	Alzon (SKW P) Piadin (SKW P)
	DMPP	Vibelsol (BASF) Vizura (BASF)

 

Markus: The fertilizer industry has developed a best fertilizer management practice, also known as 4Rs. The aim is to enable farmers to optimize the use efficiency of fertilizers by applying the right fertilizers, at the right rate at the right place and the right time. Nitrification and urease inhibitors fit nicely into the 4Rs. For example, urea treated with a urease inhibitor is a product, that is protected against ammonia losses and that does not need to be mechanically incorporated or washed into the soil. It achieves the same yield performance as ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers. This is a great tool for farmers, where ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers are not available. Nitrification inhibitors also complement the 4Rs. A fertilizer treated with an NI will reduced the risk of leaching of nitrate and thus increase the NUE. This allows farmers more flexibility to the timing of when to apply fertilizers. For example,  the NI product Vibelsol is designed to be used on ammonium and urea based NPK fertilzers. Vibelsol protects against nitrate leaching for 4-10 weeks. The farmer can apply the NPK when convenient rather than only thinking about the crop nutrient demand. Beyond the on the farm benefit, NI reduce Nitrous Oxide emissions by about 50%.  As you probably know, N₂O long-lasting greenhouse gas that is 265 times more powerful than CO₂.

 

 

Markus: BASF has a long history in agriculture that actually started in the invention (Haber-Bosch process) and manufacture of nitrogen containing fertilizer.  Today our focus in crop nutrition is on EEF technologies and inoculants to support nitrogen fixation in legume crops.  BASF commits a large part of its R&D budget to agriculture to being innovation that is addressing the balance of feeding the world with technology that preserves the planet. This R&D focus has led to BASF inventing DMPP, a novel nitrification inhibitor technology and we have continued to invest in this area to bring NUE products to the market.  Given the complexity and scale of the crop nutrition industry, BASF has developed important partnerships and customers to bring these NUE products to the market. We support the portfolio of current and future products with manufacturing expertise, application technology experts as well as agronomists to ensure that products are used correctly to achieve maximum benefit. Finally, BASF recognizes the need to address climate change is striving to bring technology to the market that can make a strong impact on reducing the climate impacts of agriculture with SNF. 

 

 

Markus: It is important to recognize where we are starting from. Today the market is in its infancy with a very small percentage of the global N products being optimized with EEF. The potential to make significant impacts on climate change and improve the nitrogen use efficiency of crop production is huge.  The 4R’s has been a good start on the journey but embracing stabilized nitrogen fertilizers is the next big step change. Like many other industries struggling through transformation, regulatory frameworks need to be established that allow for an orderly transition. We are seeing some important early steps in this regard and expect that more public pressure will require strong stewardship of nitrogen. To be clear, reducing nitrogen use rates is not possible to keep the population fed, but reducing the impact nitrogen has on the planet is possible and stabilized nitrogen fertilizers, especially nitrification inhibitors will play a key part in this. If you just look at the impact BASF and its customers have made alone over the past 20 years with DMPP, we have reduced N₂O emissions to the equivalent of 20 Million tons of CO₂. We are confident that with wide adoption, nitrification inhibitors will make a huge impact.

 

 

Markus: We have been working on new stabilizers, be it new formulations of UI or new NI active ingredients for several years and we understand that there is demand to further improve the efficacy. We have projects that we believe will take UI and NI’s to a new level of performance.