Since 2012, the Illinois Nutrient Research & Education Council has been Illinois agriculture’s primary investment into nutrient research. Created by state statute, NREC works closely with the Illinois Department of Agriculture to collect an assessment of $1/ton of bulk fertilizers. Seventy-five percent of this assessment serves as the funding source for nutrient research and outreach projects. In its first 10 years, NREC has invested more than $30 million into this important work.
The Council consists of nine voting members and four advisory members. The voting members, appointed by the Director of IDOA, represent farmer member organizations (3), fertilizer retailers (3), certified crop advisors (1), specialty fertilizer retailer (1) and a designee from IDOA. Advisory members are also appointed by the Director of IDOA and represent the Director of the Illinois EPA (1), a federal or state research station (1), and members of environmental organizations (2). The Council also has two full-time employees: an executive director and a research manager.
NREC operates separately and parallel to the Illinois NLRS. It supports the work of the Illinois NLRS in several key areas: review of practice removal rates and consideration of practices not currently in the strategy, funding of the USDA-NASS survey on NLRS practice awareness and adoption, and in serving on multiple standing committees. With the help of funded researchers and support from other stakeholder groups, Illinois NREC successfully submitted “saturated buffers” as an accepted practice. In addition, much of the research used to add water and sediment control basins to the strategy was funded by NREC.
Each year, the Council issues a request for proposals and then evaluates the submitted proposals to determine where to make investments. NREC is committed to identifying products and practices which address the agronomic, economic, and environmental needs of Illinois farms.
NREC funds research projects in four main categories, with specific issues identified in each:
- Applying and understanding the 4Rs — identifying conservation practices and expanding the understanding of these practices related to more efficient fertilizer applications and using those nutrients for crop production.
- Capturing excess nutrients in the field, primarily using cover crops, with a focus on finding the most economical strategies for adopting these methods on a wide scale.
- Mitigating the loss of excess nutrients to water supplies through edge-of-field practices — woodchip bioreactors, wetlands, saturated buffers, water and sediment control basins, and other practices designed to capture nutrients before they enter water supplies.
- Studying other nutrient management issues, including the impact of tile depth and spacing; the use of gypsum and drainage water management; and emerging topics, such as dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium for nitrate retention and the use of biochar to remove phosphorus from drainage water.
In 2020 and 2021, Illinois NREC invested $4 million and $3.9 million respectively into nutrient research projects. Each of those years also included an additional $60,000 for outreach and education activities. Research partners for 2020 and 2021 included University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University, Western Illinois University, Purdue University, and the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association. Findings from this funded research are regularly highlighted in professional journals, webinars, farmer meetings, and other Illinois Extension activities. Each year, NREC publishes an annual report of the research findings. The reports are available at www.illinoisnrec.org.
NREC also invests in education-based projects that incorporate research findings and effectively promote conservation practice implementation to farmers and crop advisers. NREC partners with others in the industry to focus on knowledge transfer and usefulness of the generated data. NREC publishes periodic “Investment Insights,” which focus on individual research projects and provides a one-page summary of the work and findings. In addition, NREC posts project videos on its YouTube channel and utilizes other social media platforms to widely distribute research data.
NREC holds an annual Investment Insight LIVE event which brings together academic partners from across the state to share their research, have meaningful dialogue, and share ideas and concepts to move research forward. In addition, many of the 40-plus students who contribute to NREC-funded projects have the opportunity to present their work and interact with stakeholders and other researchers at the event’s poster session. Agriculture media is aggressively included in the event to help disseminate information and to amplify what NREC is doing to advance nutrient management research.
For more information, visit illinoisnrec.org.
