Nitrogen nutrition in plants: rapid progress and new challenges

A Reaction paper by MARY LEIGN B. PALMA

February 16, 2019

“Plants with better nitrogen efficiency would mitigate some of the problems of
excessive fertilizer because we could reduce the amount of nitrogen required to get the same
yield,” said James Schnable, assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture. “And it would
help farmers be proactive in reducing their fertilizer use, whether to save money or to cope
with environmental regulations that may come about.”

Nitrogen in plant is so vital because it is a major component of chlorophyll, the

compound by which plants use sunlight energy to produce sugars from water and carbon
dioxide (i.e., photosynthesis). It is also a major component of amino acids, the building blocks
of proteins. But the problem is, nitrogen deficiency in plants is likely to occur when other
minerals like carbon are added to the soil that would directly lead to the unavailability of it to
the plants and this will automatically translate to the reduction of chlorophyll content of plants,
therefore, affecting flowering, fruiting, starch and protein contents undermining plant health.
Also, high levels of nitrogen are of limits because it can have a negative effect on vegetation,
including leaf damage and reduced growth. It can make vegetation more susceptible to disease
and frost damage.

Thus, consideration on looking for N alternatives must be on priority. There are couple
of key points to keep in mind where looking for N alternatives. First, remember various N
sources have different effects on soil pH. Alternative N sources can add additional nutrients
that you may or may not need for your crop. If a soil test indicates that your crop needs
phosphorus, diammonium phosphate may be a good choice. Likewise, if potassium is low, then
potassium nitrate might be the fertilizer of choice. Furthermore, organic fertilizer is capable
to decrease the use of synthetic fertilizer due to release of plant nutrients and improvement of
other soil properties.

Breeding cultivars with improved Nutrient Use Efficiency (NuUE) is becoming a

prerequisite for lowering production costs. Such cultivars with NuUE protects the environment
by reducing fertilizer application, decreasing the rate of nutrient application losses to
ecosystems, decreasing input costs and improving rice yield with a guarantee for sustainability
in agriculture while maintaining soil and ground water quality.