Research suggests corn grown under organic conditions becomes more nitrogen efficient

The Crop in Soils Research group is in full gear getting seed ready for a December planting at an organic site in Puerto Rico. Our hard working research team includes interns from Thailand (Suwanasart Konbua), Japan (Tomoya Hirano), Columbia (Leonardo Hurtado) as well as four employees from the USA. Funding by USDA-ARS and by USDA-NIFA-OREI is accelerating our work in the development of high methionine and nitrogen efficient corn. A grant from the Ceres foundation is allowing us to explore Nitrogen fixation in corn with different bacteria on an organic farm. Research results from the first summer of this three year grant suggest that corn that is grown and selected under organic conditions adapts by becoming more nitrogen efficient.