Nitrogen use efficiency: getting more from every KG of nitrogen
Nitrogen remains one of the most important inputs for growers when it comes to crop production, but improving the efficiency with which crops use it is becoming an increasingly important agronomic and environmental objective. Nitrogen prices also remain volatile, meaning making the most of inputs is becoming an even more significant consideration when it comes to ROI.
The challenge is not just to reduce nitrogen inputs but to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and enable the crop to make more productive use of the nitrogen available to it while maintaining yield and quality.
What do we mean by nitrogen use efficiency?
Nitrogen use efficiency describes the relationship between the nitrogen available to a crop and the output this nitrogen goes on to achieve from using it. Achieving better NUE depends on several elements. Crops need effective root systems to access nitrogen from the soil. Nitrogen must then be taken up and transported through the plant before being turned into amino acids, proteins and other compounds required for growth. At the same time, the crop needs enough photosynthetic capacity to generate the carbon and energy required to support that growth.
A weakness at any point in this process will limit how effectively nitrogen is converted into yield. This is why improving NUE is so important.
Plant growth depends on a continual balance between carbon captured through photosynthesis and nitrogen acquired through the roots. When a crop photosynthesises efficiently, it captures more carbon dioxide and produces more sugars. To turn this carbon into yield, the crop also needs nitrogen.
Status® combines two complementary plant biostimulant technologies: MTU® and pidolic acid. MTU® protects the photosynthetic apparatus under stress, including Photosystem I, while also promoting root development. Greater root growth increases the surface area available for the plant to access nutrients. Pidolic acid is known to increase nitrogen assimilation. It acts inside the pathway where absorbed nitrogen is incorporated into amino acids and proteins, supporting growth under normal and stressed conditions. Together, these technologies support the improvement of NUE.
One of the most useful ways to test nitrogen use efficiency is to compare crop performance under standard and reduced nitrogen programmes. Across 11 trials of Status® in wheat, oilseed rape, maize and sunflower across Hungary, Germany and the UK, an average reduction of 38kg N/ha was applied. Results showed that reducing nitrogen without Status® resulted in an average yield reduction of approximately 6% compared with the standard nitrogen programme.
However, where Status® at 0.25l/ha was added to the reduced nitrogen treatment, average yield was approximately 1% above the full-nitrogen control benchmark. These results clearly show what improving NUE is intended to achieve.
Crop quality also improved within these trials. In Hungary, reducing nitrogen from 80kg N/ha to 40kg N/ha reduced grain protein. Where Status® was included with the lower nitrogen treatment, grain protein increased significantly and exceeded the protein level recorded under the higher-nitrogen untreated programme.
Pressure to improve nitrogen efficiency is unlikely to change in the near future as weather conditions and nitrogen prices remain varied. Fertiliser cost and environmental targets alongside an increasing demand for productive agriculture are all encouraging growers to look more closely at the return achieved from each kilogramme of nitrogen applied.
Technologies that improve the physiological processes involved in nutrient acquisition and crop productivity can provide an important tool for growers looking to optimise their nitrogen inputs. Status® is CE marked under the EU Fertilising Products Regulation as a plant biostimulant for nitrogen use efficiency, alongside claims relating to quality, yield and tolerance to abiotic stress..
The research programme around the MTU technology continues to develop. At the 2026 Biostimulants World Congress, Jaroslav Nisler of the Czech Academy of Sciences will present further work examining the relationship between Photosystem I stabilisation, MTU, yield and nitrogen input across a broad international evidence base.
