Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18
Improving nutrient efficiency in major European food, feed and biofuel crops to reduce the negative environmental impact of crop production

Article Category

Article available in the following languages:

Identifying nutrient-efficient crops

Modern agriculture relies on high levels of environmentally unfriendly chemical fertilisers. As an alternative approach, researchers are looking for common food, feed and biofuel crop variants that use nutrients more efficiently.

Including alternative land-management strategies, there have been other approaches to decreasing fertiliser use. But nutrient-use efficient (NUE) crop strains offer reduced fertiliser use while maintaining or even improving on current yields. The EU-funded NUE-CROPS(opens in new window) project is now developing the models, tools and knowledge required to breed and promote NUE crops. The aim is to introduce NUE varieties of wheat, oilseed rape, potato and maize, and the strains will be identified using genetic and physical testing. Laboratory and field tests have already identified potential NUE strains for all four crops, particularly in the area of nitrogen-use efficiency. Other work completed so far includes developing genetic databases of potential markers, and modelling to find the best combinations of NUE traits. NUE-CROPS will confirm the most promising NUE genetic markers, and it will apply further modelling and life-cycle analysis to optimise the benefits to be gained from new strains. In the long-term, the NUE-CROPS team's efforts will bring about benefits for the environment, farmers and consumers.

My booklet 0 0