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4 R’s not enough to achieve ambitious water quality goals

The CEO of a conservation-focused precision agriculture software company says the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Strategy is not enough to meet ambitious water quality goals.

Tom Buman with Iowa-based Agren considers the 4 R’s: right fertilizer source, at the right rate, at the right time, and with the right placement, a great starting point.

“But when you look at the overall benefit gained by implementing the 4 R’s, at least in the Upper Midwest, does not get us to the levels that state governments committed to the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.”

The 12 state partnership aims to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous loading in the Gulf 45 percent by 2035.

Buman tells Brownfield farmers will have to go beyond nitrogen management to achieve those results.

“We might be able to get 20 percent of the way there, but we still need those other practices like wetlands, bioreactors, saturated buffers and cover crops.  (cover crops) is really a big one in order to achieve the standards we have set out.”

Buman acknowledges the cost of implementing some of these practices without a financial return is a problem.

He says more state and federal incentives are needed, since farmers should not be saddled with the entire responsibility of improving water quality.

 

 

 

 

  • I agree with Tom that 4Rs only takes us that far in solving the agricultural runoff water quality issues. To have a better handle on improving runoff water quality issues, we need to look at the system at broader scale. To address this issue we have put together software program called Water Quality Index for Agricultural Runoff (WQIag) available at https://wqiag.sc.egov.usda.gov/ that looks the agricultural operational system including conservation practices.

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