St. Louis — The National Science Foundation has awarded $1.3 million to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to perform research on reducing the amount of fertilizer required to grow maize, the most widely adopted crop on the planet. “The grant addresses issues critical for agriculture, the environment, and human health, and will further our understanding of how soil conditions affect the elemental composition of maize,” said Ivan Baxter, USDA research scientist and assistant member of the Danforth Center. Baxter told Green Markets that his long-term goal is to make the agriculture of maize less intensive. “We’re figuring out how plants adapt and grow in different soil environments,” added Baxter. He also wants to produce a more nutritious crop that can grow in more environments while using less fertilizer, thereby preserving the environment. “The lab at the Danforth Center can rapidly analyze large genetic populations of the diverse staple crop with the statistically powerful resource of Nested Association Mapping (NAS),” said Baxter. Put simply, NAS is a technique used for identifying and studying the genetic structure of maize. As a part of the project, educational resources will be developed to assist high school teachers in incorporating bioinformatics and plant molecular biology into their curriculum. It also includes a mentoring program whereby student and teacher internships will be sponsored in St. Louis, Mo., St. Paul, Minn., and Ithaca, N.Y.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain