As farmers face increasing pressure to maintain crop yields and efficiency, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) has announced a $9.3 million investment through the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium to improve nutrient use efficiency across varied agricultural systems.
The investment, made across 12 grants, supports research that generates practical and reliable information for farmers. The funded projects bring together universities, government research organizations and industry partners to evaluate promising solutions to increase fertilizer use efficiency across a variety of soils, cropping systems and growing conditions.
“Growers need robust, science-backed guidance for practical solutions that improve nutrient use efficiency in real-world conditions that reflect their own farming practices,” said FFAR Scientific Program Manager Dr. Sarah Lyons. “These investments support actionable research that can help farmers make better and more profitable management decisions to strengthen productivity and environmental stewardship.”
The Consortium’s projects are evaluating nitrogen and phosphorus enhanced efficiency fertilizers stacked with other management practices, such as cover cropping and following principles of nutrient stewardship, to provide farmers with science-based information that supports better management decisions for their farms. Equipping farmers with alternative products and tools in the face of unpredictable factors such as weather, market prices and product availability supports farm productivity and profitability.
To ensure projects are scientifically rigorous and to support consistency for large-scale impact and end-user confidence, all Efficient Fertilizer Consortium-funded projects are required to follow the Field Trial Guidelines for Evaluating Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers, developed in collaboration with experts from academia, government, industry and commodity groups.
Partnership collaboration, including support from Cotton Incorporated and other key crop sectors, helps ensure the guidelines reflect practical production needs and real-world applicability.
“Efficient fertilizer use is an important area of research for Cotton Incorporated because it has implications for both grower profitability and environmental stewardship,” said Dr. Jesse Daystar, vice president and chief sustainability officer at Cotton Incorporated. “Through our participation in the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, we have supported research aligned with our strategic priorities, including improving fertilizer use efficiency and advancing science that can benefit U.S. cotton producers.”
The 2026 Efficient Fertilizer Consortium awardees include:
- Kansas State University – Dr. Dorivar Ruiz Diaz was awarded $753,348 to evaluate multiple fertilizers across the diverse cropping systems and climates of Kansas.
- Pennsylvania State University – Dr. Charles White was awarded $125,540 to test the performance of novel biofertilizers under different soil moisture conditions through rainfall simulation.
- Purdue University – Dr. Daniel Quinn was awarded $844,626 to generate location-specific data through robust agronomic and environmental measurements to refine best fertilizer management practices for Midwestern corn farmers.
- University of Arizona – Dr. Pedro Andrade Sanchez was awarded $544,861 to create a research platform to test the performance of nitrogen fertilizers in irrigated desert soil conditions.
- University of Illinois – Dr. Andrew Margenot was awarded $768,669 to measure how nitrogen fertilizers perform in tile-drained corn systems.
University of Illinois – Dr. John Jones was awarded $843,102 to conduct field-scale evaluation of phosphorus fertilizers and their ability to prevent nutrient runoff and leaching across three Midwestern states. - University of Tennessee – Dr. Nutifafa Adotey was awarded $465,332 to evaluate how fertilizers and cover crops affect nitrogen balances in corn-soybean rotations.
- Virginia Tech – Dr. William Frame was awarded $969,120 to improve nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer efficiency in southern U.S. cropping systems using enhanced-efficiency fertilizers and cover crops.
- Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada – Dr. Craig Drury was awarded $316,635 to study the agronomic, environmental and microbial impacts of fertilizers combined with placement methods, conservation tillage and cover crops.
- Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada – Dr. Benjamin Ellert was awarded $999,984 to determine how effectively nitrogen moves from applied fertilizers to the crop.
- University of Copenhagen — Dr. Sander Bruun was awarded $1,665,571 to study how enhanced efficiency fertilizers and cover crops can work together to improve nitrogen use efficiency and enhance crop productivity in both Europe and North America.
- Volcani Institute — Dr. Ran Erel was awarded $999,969 to assess innovative nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer technologies for diverse crop rotations in irrigated dryland farming regions.
Facts Only
* The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) invested $9.3 million through the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium.
* The investment supports research to improve nutrient use efficiency across varied agricultural systems.
* The funding is distributed across 12 grants.
* Projects involve universities, government research organizations, and industry partners.
* Research evaluates solutions for increasing fertilizer use efficiency across different soils, cropping systems, and growing conditions.
* Projects evaluate nitrogen and phosphorus enhanced efficiency fertilizers stacked with management practices like cover cropping.
* Projects evaluate the performance of fertilizers under different soil moisture conditions through rainfall simulation.
* Projects generate location-specific data to refine best fertilizer management practices for corn farmers in the Midwest.
* Projects include field-scale evaluation of phosphorus fertilizers and their ability to prevent runoff across three Midwestern states.
* Research includes evaluating how fertilizers and cover crops affect nitrogen balances in corn-soybean rotations.
* Funding recipients include Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, University of Copenhagen, and the Volcani Institute.
Executive Summary
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) invested $9.3 million through the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium to improve nutrient use efficiency across various agricultural systems by funding 12 research grants. These projects involve collaboration between universities, government research organizations, and industry partners to evaluate solutions for increasing fertilizer use efficiency in diverse soils, cropping systems, and growing conditions. The research focuses on nitrogen and phosphorus enhanced efficiency fertilizers combined with management practices like cover cropping and nutrient stewardship principles. This work aims to provide farmers with science-based information to make better management decisions that enhance productivity and environmental stewardship by equipping them with alternative products and tools.
The funded projects include specific research allocations to institutions like Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, the University of Arizona, the University of Illinois, the University of Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, University of Copenhagen, and the Volcani Institute. Specific research areas involve testing fertilizer performance under different conditions (e.g., soil moisture simulation, tile drainage), evaluating nitrogen balances in rotations, assessing the impact of combined practices like cover crops, and studying nutrient movement and technology innovation across various regions.
Full Take
The structure of this initiative reveals a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between academic discovery and practical application in agriculture, mediated through industry partnership. The emphasis on stacking fertilizer efficiency with ecological practices like cover cropping suggests an acknowledgment that technological fixes alone are insufficient for achieving sustainable outcomes; the focus shifts toward integrated systems management. The rigorous requirement for following Field Trial Guidelines underscores a recognition that generalized findings are insufficient, necessitating context-specific, replicable data to build end-user confidence.
The distribution of funding across diverse geographies and crop systems—from the dryland farming in the American Southwest to Midwestern corn systems and European/North American comparisons—points toward an attempt at creating a universal framework for efficiency research. The specific awardees demonstrate a strategy targeting both technological performance (e.g., nitrogen movement, biofertilizers) and environmental stewardship (e.g., nutrient runoff, microbial impacts).
The pattern of collaboration involving entities like Cotton Incorporated indicates that the successful advancement of this research is tied to market-relevant outcomes: grower profitability and environmental stewardship. The underlying assumption is that actionable, science-backed guidance, rather than abstract research, drives adoption. The implicit question raised by this structure is whether the centralized guidelines and funding mechanism can successfully integrate highly localized agronomic realities while maintaining the integrity of broad scientific generalization across disparate environments. What are the long-term consequences for regional agricultural autonomy if solutions remain tethered to externally validated protocols?