Innovative renewable-based fertilizers for sustainable crop production: integrating plant productivity with soil and climate goals

Background
Conventional mineral fertilization delivers strong yield responses but is associated with nutrient losses, air and water pollution, and dependence on finite resources—particularly phosphate rock. Meanwhile, growing biomass streams and by-products create opportunities to recover nutrients and engineer functional carriers (e.g., biochar) using biological, chemical, thermal, and physical conversion pathways. Controlled-release technologies and biostimulants have advanced rapidly, promising improved nutrient-use efficiency, yield stability, and soil health with a smaller environmental footprint. However, consistent and comparable assessments that link agronomic performance with soil indicators and environmental metrics remain limited. There is a need to consolidate evidence across crops and environments, clarify mechanisms in plants and soils, and evaluate safety and feasibility from regulatory and economic perspectives to support responsible deployment of these innovations.

Scope
This Research Topic aims to assemble robust, comparable evidence on renewable-based fertilizers and biostimulants produced via biological, chemical, thermal, and physical conversion pathways. We seek to identify combinations of feedstock, conversion method, formulation, and application strategy that maximize nutrient-use efficiency for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients while minimizing losses and emissions. We welcome mechanistic insights that explain observed plant and soil responses, including changes in plant physiology, root traits, soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, and microbiome function. We also aim to evaluate safety, regulatory compliance, and techno-economic viability using transparent life-cycle and cost analyses. The outcome should include practical indicators and assessment protocols that accelerate adoption of effective solutions in farming systems and inform evidence-based decisions by growers, industry, and policymakers. Rigor, transparency, and reproducibility— including open data and code where feasible—are strongly encouraged.

Goals
To assemble robust, comparable evidence on innovative fertilizers and biostimulants derived from renewable feedstocks and produced via biological, chemical, thermal and physical conversion pathways - verification and comprehensive assessment of product quality, stability and nutrient availability across pathways, using harmonized protocols and metrics to ensure comparability of results.

To identify combinations of feedstock, conversion method, formulation and application strategy that maximize nutrient use efficiency for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and micronutrients while minimizing losses and emissions - multi-criteria evaluation and prioritization of high-performance configurations that balance nutrient recovery and use efficiency with mitigation of emission and leaching across diverse agroecological contexts.

To elucidate mechanisms of plant and soil responses (physiology, root traits, carbon and nitrogen cycling, microbiome function) - in-depth mechanistic interpretation through integration of physiological, root-phenotyping, biogeochemical and microbiome datasets to establish causal links between formulation and application attributes and observed field performance.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: renewable-based fertilizers, organo-mineral fertilizers, biostimulants, biochar, controlled release, nutrient use efficiency, soil health, soil microbiome, greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia and nitrogen oxides, life-cycle assessment, circular agriculture

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.