Track 2-07: Climate Change Impacts on Grassland Production, Composition, Distribution and Adaptation

Presenter Information

Idupulapati M. Rao, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, ColombiaFollow
Manabu Ishitani, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
John Miles, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Michael Peters, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, ColombiaFollow
Joe Tohme, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Jacobo Arango, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Danilo E. Moreta, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Hernán Lopez, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Aracely Castro, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Rein van der Hoek, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Siriwan Martens, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Glenn Hyman, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Jeimar Tapasco, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Jorge Duitama, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Harold Suarez, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Gonzalo Borrero, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Jonathan Núñez, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Katharina Hartmann, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Moralba Dominguez, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Mauricio Sotelo, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Daniel Vergara, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Patrick Lavelle, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia
Guntur V. Subbarao, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, JapanFollow
Alvaro Rincon, Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria, Colombia
Camilo Plazas, University of Llanos, Colombia
Reynaldo Mendoza, National Agricultural University, Nicaragua
Lena Rathjen, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Georg Cadisch, University of Hohenheim, Germany

Description

It is widely recognized that less than 50% of applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer is recovered by crops, and based on current fertilizer prices the economic value of this “wasted N” globally is currently estimated as US$81 billion annually. Worse still, this "wasted" N has major effects on the environment (Subbarao et al. 2012). CIAT researchers and their collaborators in Japan reported a major breakthrough in managing N to benefit both agriculture and the environment (Subbarao et al. 2009). Termed "Biological Nitrification Inhibition" (BNI), this natural phenomenon has been the subject of long-term collaborative research that revealed the mechanism by which certain plants (and in particular the tropical pasture grass B. humidicola) naturally inhibit the conversion of N in the soil from a stable form to forms subject to leaching loss (NO3) or to the potent greenhouse gas N2O (Subbarao et al. 2012). Brachiaria humidicola which is well adapted to the low-nitrogen soils of South American savannas has shown high BNI-capacity among the tropical grasses tested (Subbarao et al. 2007). The major nitrification inhibitor in Brachiaria forage grasses is brachialactone, a cyclic diterpene (Subbarao et al. 2009). Reduction of N loss from the soil under a B. humidicola pasture has a direct and beneficial environmental effect. We hypothesize that this conservation of soil N will have an additional positive impact on a subsequent crop (e.g. maize). At present, recovery of fertilizer N and the impact on crop yield is not known. The main purpose of our inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary project, targeting small-scale farmers, is to develop the innovative approach of BNI using B. humidicola forage grass hybrids to realize sustainable economic and environmental benefits from integrated crop-livestock production systems.

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Climate-Smart Crop-Livestock Systems for Smallholders in the Tropics: Integration of New Forage Hybrids to Intensify Agriculture and to Mitigate Climate Change through Regulation of Nitrification in Soil

It is widely recognized that less than 50% of applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer is recovered by crops, and based on current fertilizer prices the economic value of this “wasted N” globally is currently estimated as US$81 billion annually. Worse still, this "wasted" N has major effects on the environment (Subbarao et al. 2012). CIAT researchers and their collaborators in Japan reported a major breakthrough in managing N to benefit both agriculture and the environment (Subbarao et al. 2009). Termed "Biological Nitrification Inhibition" (BNI), this natural phenomenon has been the subject of long-term collaborative research that revealed the mechanism by which certain plants (and in particular the tropical pasture grass B. humidicola) naturally inhibit the conversion of N in the soil from a stable form to forms subject to leaching loss (NO3) or to the potent greenhouse gas N2O (Subbarao et al. 2012). Brachiaria humidicola which is well adapted to the low-nitrogen soils of South American savannas has shown high BNI-capacity among the tropical grasses tested (Subbarao et al. 2007). The major nitrification inhibitor in Brachiaria forage grasses is brachialactone, a cyclic diterpene (Subbarao et al. 2009). Reduction of N loss from the soil under a B. humidicola pasture has a direct and beneficial environmental effect. We hypothesize that this conservation of soil N will have an additional positive impact on a subsequent crop (e.g. maize). At present, recovery of fertilizer N and the impact on crop yield is not known. The main purpose of our inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary project, targeting small-scale farmers, is to develop the innovative approach of BNI using B. humidicola forage grass hybrids to realize sustainable economic and environmental benefits from integrated crop-livestock production systems.