The current food and agricultural system are heavily dependent on mineral fertilizer application. Fertilizers have become an essential commodity due to their critical role in supporting the agricultural activities worldwide. However, with the conventional fertilizer application method at current rates, only 50% of applied nitrogenous fertilizers are utilized by the plants and the rest is lost in either evaporation or to leaching. Hence the application does not serve the intended purpose of supplying nutrients to the plants. This results in less healthy soils and highly polluted water bodies. In addition to levying huge costs on the farmers, the loss of fertilizers leads to direct costs incurred due to environmental pollution. For example, agricultural nitrogen pollution leads to an annual cost of €35–€230 billion per year in EU along with huge environmental impacts associated with the production and application of fertilizers.
In this project, we aim at providing a novel solution that contributes to precision agriculture by presenting an innovative way of fertilizer application and delivery. The conventional fertilizer application method involves application of the fertilizer granules in bulk over the agricultural land. The fertilizer is transported into the soil with percolating irrigation water. The presence of preferential liquid flow pathways in the soil affects the transport of the fertilizer into deeper soil layers, bypassing the roots and leaching into the groundwater resources. This problem can be solved by changing the way fertilizer is applied and hence changing the manner in which the fertilizer is available to the plant roots. In this project, the application of fertilizer in the form of “foam” will be investigated based on an initial proof of the concept that has been established in a recent study (Shojaei et al., TIPM, 2022) (Figure 1).
