VFRC’s Scientific Backbone
food crops as well, as they are only required in small quantities. It is
therefore essential to know and understand the absolute and relative
availability of nutrients from soils, as synergistic effects on yield are
found among macronutrients, whereas antagonism between divalent
cations, including but not exclusively, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn and Mg occurs.
Hence, the ratios between micronutrients strongly impacts crop yield,
rather than just the absolute levels present in the soil, and appeared
to even govern ecological diversity of vegetation.18
The VFRC Cockpit spelled out the relevant components and initial
views that provide the basis for a coherent research agenda toward
innovative fertilizers. It contains elements on the physicochemical
knowledge of fertilizer products per se that need to be complemented
with auxiliary information about plant-soil ecophysiology, geo-spatial
analyses and diagnostics. The scientific backbone and a transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach are essential to catalyze
the required systems change in the world of fertilizers for improving
harvests, human health and the environment.
This complexity reinforces a holistic, comprehensive view for
determining the supplementation of micronutrients to basic NPK
fertilizers. We therefore explored the soil factors controlling plantavailability of Zn, described the synergistic or antagonistic behaviors
among nutrients on their uptake by plants, and discussed the mobility
of Zn within a plant as a means to finding leads to how Zn could be best
supplied to rice plants.19 Our meta-analysis for selenium (Se)20 reveals
that agro-ecosystem specific Se fertilizer strategies accounting for
soil properties, including soil acidity and redox potential; agronomic
practices such as liming, irrigation and basic fertilization (N, P an