Sino-German International Research Training Group (IRTG 2366) Adaptation of maize-based food-feed-energy systems to limited phosphate resources

Funding

DFG

Duration

2018 – 2023 bzw 2027

Research partners

11 Institute der Universität Hohenheim

Industrial partners

Team

W. Leiser

Phosphate enters the agricultural material cycle through fertilisation and animal feed, and then through various steps from primary production to animal feed, nutrition and biomass conversion to animal excreta, wastewater and organic waste. In this way, some phosphate accumulates unused in soils, while large amounts leave the agricultural material cycle through erosion and through waste and wastewater streams into the environment. Phosphate is a limited essential nutrient (about 350 years). The impact of the limitation of an essential nutrient and the associated economic pressures are largely unknown. Closing the phosphate cycle and reducing the use of more primary phosphates are fundamental challenges. Maize is one of the most important crops with a high phosphate demand, especially in juvenile development, and is therefore ideally suited to study the effects of phosphate limitation. Together, China and Germany represent the full range of maize production chains in a wide range of climatic regions.

In an interdisciplinary approach, we will investigate (1) the genetic potential of maize populations to adapt to phosphate limitation, (2) the adaptability of maize cropping systems to phosphate limitation, (3) the mechanistic interactions of the products with further use in human and animal nutrition as well as phosphate recovery through biomass conversion. (4) An economic evaluation will be carried out at different scales. Field trials in China and Germany will allow complementary and comparative analyses. Genetic and molecular methods, modern spectroscopy, economic studies and modelling are the cornerstones of the broad spectrum of methods.