| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 13, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 13, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1827336 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jesus Soriano Molla
jsoriano@nsf.gov (703)292-7795 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2018 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $750,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $750,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
105 JESSUP HALL IOWA CITY IA US 52242-1316 (319)335-2123 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2 Gilmore Hall Iowa City IA US 52242-1320 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | PFI-Partnrships for Innovation |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this PFI project will be increasing the economic competitiveness of the U.S. by increasing the output from commercial farms and increasing the production of related industries that rely on agricultural crops. This project will result in a new fertilizer that can be used to increase the harvest yields of soybeans and corn by at least 10% and possibly up to 25%. An increase in yields per acre will allow over 500,000 farmers to grow and sell more food from their land and to turn unprofitable years into profitable ones. This will bring more money into rural communities and increase the economic competitiveness of America?s farmer. Increasing agricultural production affects more than farmers, it also affects industries worth $992B that rely on food production. This proposal targets corn and soybeans because they are grown on approximately 180M acres in the U.S. (this is larger than the size of Texas) and generate over $92B in revenue each year. Finally, this project will increase the food safety of the U.S. by increasing the amount of food grown on land already dedicated to farming.
The proposed project is the optimization and demonstration of a new fertilizer to increase the harvest yields of corn and soybeans. This novel fertilizer will be fabricated from natural chemicals and biocompatible, biodegradable polymers already used in agriculture. The formulation of the proposed novel fertilizer will be optimized and tested each year by growing crops of soybeans and corn in commercial fields and investigating the effect on yield of different loadings of fertilizer. The industrial partner will spread the proposed fertilizer using commercial farming equipment and grow corn and soybean plants under identical conditions as farmers. These studies are designed to assess whether the proposed fertilizer will increase the harvest yields and provide necessary data that will be provided to the Iowa Department of Agriculture to gain permission to sell the fertilizer commercially. At the completion of this grant the proposed fertilizer will be optimized for corn and soybeans and, hopefully, demonstrated to increase their harvest yields by 10 to 25%.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Farming is hard work, and many farmers struggle to turn a profit. To make money, they must grow as much food as they can and sell it for as high a price as possible, but they often have little control over the price they receive. They invest heavily in farm equipment, fertilizer, and land to grow as much food as possible. Despite these efforts, corn and soybean farmers turn a profit only once or twice every three years.
As a part of this proposal, we developed a series of chemicals that act as fertilizers to increase the harvest yield of corn and soybeans. These crops are grown on over 175 million acres which is larger than the size of Texas. Many of the farms are family-owned, and good years lead to healthy local economies and lean years affects all aspects of the rural communities where they live. The health of these communities is tied closely to the profitability of the farmers who live in them.
Our new fertilizers were developed to increase the harvest yields of corn and soybeans and to not pollute the land or waterways. These chemicals will break down in the environment to release safe, natural chemicals already present in the environment. Furthermore, they are only needed at low scales of several pounds per acre which is much less than the one to two hundred pounds per acre of fertilizer already in use in these farms. These chemicals can increase the harvest yields of corn and soybeans by up to four percent which is a significant increase for farmers and can greatly boost their profits.
Field trials with an expert, third-party farmer were completed as a part of this grant. These field trials were very successful and formed the basis for the reported increase in harvest yields. The fertilizers were developed to be applied when farmers were already in their fields so no extra passes were needed to apply them. These field trials were completed outdoors using commercial farm equipment to mimic how farmers plant their crops.
This work led to patent applications and the launching of a start-up company to commercialize these new fertilizers. The company is working hard to take the results generated from this grant to translate into fertilizers that can help hundreds of thousands of farmers across the U.S. increase their harvest and profits.
Last Modified: 11/30/2022
Modified by: Ned B Bowden
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