Nutrient Expert™ Decision Tools for Maize, Wheat Launched in India

The India International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) launched the Nutrient Expert™ decision support tools for maize and wheat crops in India at the National Agricultural Science Center (NASC) Complex in New Delhi.

Nutrient Expert™ is an easy-to-use, interactive, and computer-based decision support tool that can rapidly provide nutrient recommendations for individual farmers’ field in the presence or absence of soil testing data.

“Beginning in 2009, under the umbrella of Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), Nutrient Expert™ for maize and wheat were developed and extensively tested in real farm conditions with the objective of easy implementation of improved nutrient management practices in smallholder maize and wheat systems of India,” said Dr. Adrian Johnston, Vice-President, IPNI Asia & Africa Programs.

The development of Nutrient Expert™ for a specific crop and geography was done in collaboration with target users and local stakeholders from both public and private sectors through a series of dialogues and consultations. The approach integrated Site-specific Nutrient Management (SSNM) principles, developed over the last two decades, into a user-friendly nutrient decision support tool to help Indian wheat and maize farmers achieve higher yield and profitability.

“Resource constraints of the smallholder farmers, lack of access to soil testing, and absence of tillage-specific nutrient management strategies in India were adequately taken care of in these tools, making them truly location-specific tools capable of spatial and temporal management of nutrients. The tools have been validated for three consecutive years across large number of locations, in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities, State Agriculture Departments, Fertilizer and Seed Industry, to assess their efficacy under contrasting management scenarios and have shown improved productivity, profitability, efficiency and reduced environmental footprints over existing fertilizer management practices,” said Dr. Kaushik Majumdar, Director, IPNI South Asia Program.

As India faces many challenges to feed its growing population with changing food habits, Dr. Lumpkin emphasized the need for new tools: "We need to apply precision agriculture on each square meter; we need tools like the Nutrient Expert™ and remote-sensing technology to be able to do so."