Innovative Solutions For Next-Generation Fertilizers

The world’s population is expected to reach a whopping 10 billion people by 2050. Given the projected increases in world population, we need to produce more food in the next 30 years than we have ever produced in human history to feed that many people. The magnitude of this challenge is even greater considering that two-thirds of the worldwide agricultural land will likely diminish in productivity owing to the climate change impacts and the intensification of agriculture, which often resulted in degraded, highly vulnerable, exhausted, and unproductive soils. This implies sustainable intensification of agriculture on the land that is available (i.e. produce more without expanding the agricultural area). Crop productivity today is highly dependent on fertilizer application, which often constitutes the major source of nutrients in a crop system. Fertilizer application—combined with other productivity factors—led to a significant inflection in crop yield trends across the world. However, fertilizers applied without consideration of the 4R’s Nutrient Stewardship (appropriate rate, timing, source, and method) can have harmful economic, environmental, and social effects through nutrient run-off and emission of more potent greenhouse gases (GHGs).

This Research Topic traces emerging answers and examines a truck-load of issues around traditional agriculture fertilization and finds some potential solutions for our future. Developing new and sustainable technologies to produce next generation fertilizers for advanced crop nutrition is crucial in order to improve the efficiency of fertilizers to increase crop yields and create stronger, healthier, and sustainable agriculture while reducing the impacts of fertilizers on the environment.

This Research Topic focuses on recent developments, trends, and concepts for novel fertilizer technologies capable of replacing conventional fertilizer and can reduce the environmental effects of modern agriculture while maintaining or increasing crop yields. Deploying innovative approaches for next generation fertilizers in the field of bio-actives, nutrients, controlled- and slow-release fertilizers, nanoparticle-based fertilizers, signaling molecules, and other (in)organic molecules have tremendous potential for boosting plant fitness, yield, and quality/functionality. Additionally, manuscripts that contribute to understanding the molecular mechanism(s) of action of these next-generation fertilizers are also welcome.

We welcome original research articles, reviews, perspectives, short communications, hypotheses and theories, methods, and opinions that include the following (but are not limited to):

• Innovative approaches and advanced methods to produce and characterize next-generation fertilizers (rhizosphere microbiome engineering; atmospheric N fixation; enhanced efficiency fertilizers; increased phosphorus availability; biodegradable coating for controlled release of fertilizers; slow-release fertilizer granules, glass fertilizers formulation...)

• Systems of bioactive (biostimulants, nutrients, signaling molecules, (in)organic molecules) -based novel fertilizers

• Development of next generation fertilizers for enhanced nutrient use efficiency (NUE) in crops

• Promoting crop tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses using new fertilizers

• Synergies between the bioactivities of different fertilizers

• Improving crop nutritional quality/functionality by using next-generation fertilizers

• Understanding the molecular mechanism(s) of novel fertilizers in imparting stress tolerance and NUE in crops.