NCERA_OLD103: Specialized Soil Amendments and Products, Growth Stimulants and Soil Fertility Management Programs (NCR-103)
Statement of Issues and Justification
It is important in agriculture to maintain productivity and profitability while reducing nutrient and other inputs for both economic and environmental reasons. There is a large research base available evaluating the success of reducing nutrient inputs from traditional fertilizer amendments and the environmental impacts of these reductions. However, non-conventional/non-traditional products for agriculture, including soil amendments, growth stimulants, or soil fertility management programs are currently being promoted and sold on the claim of replacing or extending the efficacy of standard crop production inputs. Many of these products have not been evaluated in scientific studies in soils or climates similar to those of the North Central region. For producers to make rational choices in regards to these products, they must have access to a source that provides fair and scientifically valid evaluations of these specialized products or soil fertility management programs.
Numerous field trials have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of various products, but have not been published in the scientific literature, and therefore are not available to farmers and farm educators. Members of the NCR-103 Committee have collected these reports and summarized them in the "Compendium of Research Reports on Non-Conventional Products", first published in 1982. Two supplements to this volume have also been published. Criteria were established regarding reports to be published, requiring replication, statistical analysis, minimum site years of data etc, which must be met before an article/report will currently be included. Thus, the committee provides a source of relevant, scientifically based information to colleagues in the North Central region who in turn share this information with farmers.
Many of these products are expensive to use and are often marketed under different names in different states. The names of the products may also be changed frequently as manufacturer or marketing agents change. NCR-103 has functioned as a repository for the collection, and subsequent dissemination, of information about the active ingredients for products or programs, the name of the company that manufactures or markets it and research, if any, which has been done on the product. This annotated "Product List" now includes over 400 products or programs, and was updated in 2001.
Specialized agricultural products must be registered and/or licensed for sale in most North Central states. Research information provided by the NCR-103 committee or individual members has been used by state regulatory officials in determining if a product has value and should be licensed.
NCR-103 must also be concerned with non-traditional fertilizer management programs, which promote the addition of micro-nutrients, adjustments to base saturation rations, and the use of biological innoculants, growth regulators or seed treatments that claim to maintain or increase crop yields. Many of these non-traditional programs appear to be scientific and may have a scientific basis. However, other programs, recommendations, products and procedures are either not based on, or contrary to, current scientific knowledge. Crop producers need to be aware of the "pseudo-science" found in some of these fertility management programs.
See attached for continuation of Justification.
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