Switch Bioworks, the Stanford University spinout developing engineered nitrogen-fixing microbes for corn, has appointed Gordana Djordjevic as its new Chief Science Officer and added a new board advisor as the company expands its multi-state field trial program, according to AgWired.

The appointment comes as Switch Bioworks scales from greenhouse work to what founder Tim Schnabel has called the “ultimate test” — whether its microbes can survive, establish themselves, and perform as programmed under real field conditions. The company is currently running in-furrow field trials across six U.S. states in the Midwest corn belt, targeting the 2026 growing season.

Switch Bioworks’ approach uses a genetic switch that allows its engineered microbes to first colonize plant roots and compete with native soil bacteria before activating nitrogen fixation. The two-phase strategy addresses a persistent challenge in biological nitrogen fertilizer: engineered microbes that begin producing ammonia immediately tend to exhaust their energy and get outcompeted by native soil organisms within days.

The company raised $17 million in a funding round earlier in 2026 and holds a $2 million ARPA-E grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. A recent MIT Technology Review feature profiled the company’s technology, noting that Switch Bioworks’ modeling suggests its microbes could eventually replace approximately 50% of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in corn at yield parity.

Field trial results from the current growing season are expected later in 2026. If the data supports the greenhouse performance, Switch Bioworks would move toward commercial product development targeting the 2028 or 2029 planting season.

Source: AgWired

The WTO-AXSMarine Strait of Hormuz Trade Tracker, updated through early September 2026, shows fertilizer shipments through the strait remain near zero despite the June memorandum of understanding between Iran and Oman on safe shipping route coordinates. Outbound fertilizer and LNG flows from the Persian Gulf through Hormuz have not meaningfully recovered from the near-total cessation that began in late 2025.

The tracker, a joint initiative of the World Trade Organization and maritime analytics firm AXSMarine, provides weekly data on vessel transits and commodity flows through the waterway. Before the conflict, Hormuz handled approximately 20% of globally traded nitrogen fertilizer — primarily ammonia and urea from Middle Eastern producers — along with substantial volumes of sulfur, a critical input for phosphate production.

The persistence of near-zero flows comes despite two diplomatic developments: the Iran-Oman agreement on safe shipping route coordinates reached in August, and the broader MoU framework that expired without a deal in August. Shipping operators have shown reluctance to resume transit without comprehensive insurance coverage and clearer military security guarantees.

The WTO Hormuz trade tracker data underscores the gap between diplomatic progress and the actual resumption of commercial activity. While nitrogen prices have corrected substantially from their April peaks — aided by China’s export quota release and reduced global demand — the continued absence of Hormuz flows means global fertilizer supply chains remain structurally rerouted. Middle Eastern producers have been diverting volumes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal or via pipeline alternatives, adding cost and transit time.

The sulfur shortage that emerged from the Hormuz blockade remains acute, with prices above $1,000 per metric ton and phosphate producers in Egypt, Brazil, and India curtailing output due to unsustainable input costs.

Source: WTO / AXSMarine

Fertiberia has launched its NSAFE bio-inhibitor technology in the Netherlands and Germany, marking the product’s first expansion into Northern European markets. Van de Reijt, the Dutch subsidiary of Grupo Fertiberia, will lead commercialization in both countries, according to World Fertilizer.

NSAFE is described by Fertiberia as the world’s first bio-based nitrification inhibitor. Unlike conventional synthetic inhibitors that act on ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₄⁺), the Fertiberia NSAFE bio-inhibitor targets nitric nitrogen (NO₃⁻) directly. The microbiological product assimilates nitrate into its organic structure as protein and releases it as organic nitrogen at the end of its life cycle, the company said. The mechanism is designed to reduce nitrogen losses from leaching and volatilization while preserving soil microbial biodiversity.

The bio-inhibitor emerged from more than 6 years of research and has been validated in laboratory and field trials conducted with European research institutions including Wageningen University (Netherlands), Ghent University (Belgium), the Technical University of Madrid, the University of León, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and AGROSOLUTION (France).

Fertiberia first launched NSAFE in Spain in early 2024, integrated into its Nergetic DZ+ fertilizer product line. The company has since expanded the technology to France, Portugal, and Greece. The Netherlands and Germany expansion aligns with the EU’s tightening nitrogen regulations under the Nitrate Directive, which is pushing European farmers toward more efficient fertilizer application.

Minnesota’s recently announced $1.6 million program to subsidize farmer access to enhanced-efficiency nitrogen products illustrates similar regulatory and policy momentum on both sides of the Atlantic.

Source: World Fertilizer

Darren Hudson, an agricultural economist at Texas Tech University, argued in a September 7 Agri-Pulse op-ed that U.S. fertilizer prices are primarily driven by global supply shocks and energy costs rather than domestic market concentration, pushing back against a narrative that has gained traction in Congress and among farm advocacy groups.

Hudson’s analysis pointed to the Strait of Hormuz disruption, which began in late 2025 and sent nitrogen prices to multi-year highs by April 2026, as the dominant factor behind the recent price surge. The crisis temporarily blocked or diverted ammonia, urea, and sulfur shipments from the Persian Gulf — a region that supplies approximately 20% of global traded nitrogen and the majority of traded sulfur.

The op-ed comes as the USDA fertilizer investigation nears completion, with farm groups pressing for greater pricing transparency and some lawmakers framing high fertilizer costs as a competition problem. Hudson contended that fertilizer is a globally traded commodity whose price is set by international supply-demand balances, not by the market share of any individual domestic producer.

He cited the rapid price correction since May — urea has fallen roughly 50% from its April peak and the Tampa ammonia contract has declined for four consecutive months — as evidence that markets are functioning competitively rather than exhibiting the pricing rigidity typically associated with concentrated market power.

Hudson acknowledged that fertilizer market structure has consolidated in recent decades, with Nutrien, CF Industries, Mosaic, and a handful of global producers holding large shares of North American capacity. He argued that consolidation alone does not prove anticompetitive pricing, and that the pattern of rapid price spikes followed by rapid corrections is consistent with a commodity market responding to external shocks.

Source: Agri-Pulse

Reinke Manufacturing’s E3 center pivot irrigation system won the Irrigation Innovation of the Year award at the seventh annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards, organizers announced on September 8. The award recognizes technology innovations across the global agricultural and food technology landscape.

The E3 is Reinke’s latest center pivot platform, designed for improved water application uniformity and energy efficiency. Center pivot irrigation systems are the dominant method for large-scale crop watering across the U.S. Great Plains, Midwest, and western irrigated regions, where they serve corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton acreage.

Reinke, a privately held Nebraska-based manufacturer, competes in the irrigation equipment market alongside Valmont Industries (which owns Valley Irrigation) and Lindsay Corporation. The center pivot irrigation market in the United States alone was estimated at approximately $2.5 billion in 2025, driven by rising water costs, aquifer depletion concerns, and the push toward precision water application that matches variable soil and crop needs.

Efficient irrigation directly affects fertilizer performance. Overapplication of water leaches nitrogen below the root zone, wasting both water and fertilizer. Precision center pivots that deliver variable-rate water application allow growers to match irrigation to nutrient application zones, improving nitrogen use efficiency and reducing the environmental footprint of fertilizer inputs.

Source: AgWired

Yara International inaugurated Europe’s largest industrial carbon capture facility on September 7 at its ammonia and fertilizer plant in Sluiskil, the Netherlands. The installation can capture and liquefy up to 800,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually from ammonia production, establishing the first complete cross-border carbon capture and storage chain linking an industrial site in one country with permanent geological storage in another.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, and European Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra attended the ceremony. The EU Commission described the project as direct proof of the EU-Norway Green Alliance signed in 2023, noting that the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility helped fund the Northern Lights CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.

Captured CO₂ at Sluiskil will be liquefied on site and transported by ship to the Northern Lights facility at Øygarden on the Norwegian coast, where it will be injected 2,600 meters beneath the seabed of the Norwegian continental shelf for permanent storage. Over 15 years, the project is expected to store approximately 12 million metric tons of CO₂.

“The carbon capture facility in Sluiskil proves that large-scale industrial decarbonization is possible today,” Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether said. Conventional ammonia production generates roughly 1.6 metric tons of CO₂ per metric ton of ammonia, making fertilizer manufacturing one of the most carbon-intensive industrial processes. By avoiding carbon taxation on captured volumes, Yara expects the Yara carbon capture Sluiskil operation to improve the long-term competitiveness of its European operations.

The Sluiskil plant is Europe’s largest ammonia and fertilizer production site. Its CCS project follows Northern Lights’ first injection in August 2025, using CO₂ from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik, Norway. The Yara link is the chain’s first cross-border segment.

The inauguration comes weeks after Chile approved an $11 billion HNH Energy green ammonia project and as the green ammonia sector shifts from ambition to execution, underscoring a broader push across the fertilizer industry to reduce production-stage carbon emissions through both CCS and renewable hydrogen pathways.

GUSS Automation, the John Deere-owned autonomous orchard sprayer company, will integrate Ouster’s Rev8 digital lidar sensors into its next-generation machines, the companies announced. The partnership equips GUSS autonomous sprayers with native color lidar capable of mapping individual tree trunks and navigating dense orchard rows without a human operator.

The Ouster Rev8 is a high-resolution digital lidar sensor that captures both range and reflectivity data in a single scan, enabling the GUSS autonomous orchard machines to build detailed 3D maps of their environment in real time. In orchards — where row spacing can be tight and canopy cover blocks GPS signals — lidar provides the perception layer that makes fully autonomous operation reliable, according to Ouster.

GUSS (Global Unmanned Spray System) was acquired by John Deere as part of the tractor maker’s push into autonomous specialty-crop equipment. The company’s sprayers currently operate in citrus, nut, and wine grape orchards across the western United States, with each unit capable of covering up to 20 acres per hour without operator intervention.

The lidar upgrade is expected to improve the sprayers’ ability to detect obstacles, maintain precise row tracking, and operate safely in mixed-use orchard environments where workers or other vehicles may be present. GUSS did not disclose when the Rev8-equipped units would enter production.

Source: iGrow News

What to know about autonomous orchard spraying

A new study published in Global Change Biology found that adding soil microbiome predators — protists and nematodes — to agricultural soil boosted plant biomass by 53%, outperforming the effect of added synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The findings suggest that managing the soil food web could reduce crop dependence on conventional nitrogen inputs while maintaining or improving yields.

How soil predators outperformed nitrogen fertilizer

The researchers conducted controlled greenhouse experiments using cannabis (hemp) as the test crop. Plants received one of four treatments: a control with no additions, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer alone, soil microbiome predators (protists and nematodes) alone, or a combination of fertilizer and predators. The predator-only treatment produced a 53% increase in aboveground biomass compared to the unfertilized control — a larger gain than nitrogen fertilizer alone delivered.

The mechanism, according to the study’s authors, centers on the “microbial loop” in the rhizosphere. Protists and nematodes feed on soil bacteria, releasing nitrogen locked in bacterial biomass back into plant-available forms. This grazing pressure also reshapes the composition of the bacterial community, favoring species that promote plant growth and nutrient cycling. The result is a more efficient transfer of nitrogen from soil organic matter to the plant.

Implications for nitrogen fertilizer reduction

The study’s authors noted that their findings support a growing body of soil microbiome research showing that biological soil management can partially substitute for synthetic fertilizer inputs. If the results hold at field scale, deliberately introducing or encouraging predator populations could allow farmers to cut nitrogen application rates without sacrificing productivity.

This aligns with the broader industry shift toward biological soil amendments. Switch Bioworks recently launched U.S. field trials for engineered nitrogen-fixing microbes in corn, and companies like Pivot Bio have commercialized microbial nitrogen products targeting the same goal — reducing synthetic fertilizer use through biological pathways.

A food web approach to crop nutrition

Unlike engineered microbes or biological nitrogen fixers, the predator-based approach works with existing soil ecology rather than introducing new organisms. Protists and nematodes are natural components of healthy soils that are often depleted by intensive tillage, fumigation, and heavy fertilizer use. The study suggests that restoring these populations — through reduced tillage, organic matter additions, or targeted inoculation — could unlock nitrogen already present in the soil’s microbial biomass.

The research was conducted using a single crop species in greenhouse conditions, and the authors cautioned that field validation across multiple crops, soil types, and climatic zones is needed before the results can be translated into commercial recommendations. Scaling from greenhouse pots to farm fields introduces variables — including existing soil predator populations, tillage regimes, and chemical inputs — that could affect the magnitude of the biomass response.

For the fertilizer industry, the study adds to evidence that the soil microbiome represents both a competitive threat and a commercial opportunity. Companies that can develop products enhancing beneficial soil food web interactions — rather than simply replacing synthetic nitrogen molecule-for-molecule — may find a differentiated market position as regulators and farmers increasingly prioritize soil health.

Source: Global Change Biology / PMC

The Tampa ammonia benchmark contract settled at $555 per metric ton CFR for September, down $80 per metric ton from August and marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline from May’s $825 peak. The $270-per-metric-ton retreat over four months represents a 33% correction and is the steepest sustained Tampa ammonia price decline since the post-2022 pullback.

The contract has fallen in every month since reaching its cycle high in May, when the escalation of the Strait of Hormuz conflict disrupted Middle Eastern ammonia exports and triggered a global nitrogen supply scare. The trajectory since then — $825 in May, $720 in June, $670 in July, $635 in August, and now $555 in September — reflects the progressive easing of supply-side panic as alternative sources entered the market.

Key factors driving the correction include China’s decision in June to release urea export quotas, which relieved pressure on East Asian nitrogen markets, and the Iran-Oman agreement on Hormuz safe shipping route coordinates, which gave some operators a tentative framework for resuming transit. Trinidad and Tobago ammonia plants also ran at higher utilization rates through August, adding Atlantic Basin supply.

The Tampa ammonia price nonetheless remains elevated by historical standards. The September $555 level is approximately 15% above the pre-crisis baseline of roughly $480 per metric ton that prevailed in early 2026 and well above the $300–$400 range that characterized 2023–2024.

Source: Australian Fertilizer Corp

Processed phosphate benchmarks edged lower in the week ending August 28 as sellers showed greater flexibility, yet structural supply constraints kept prices elevated. DAP delivered to India was assessed at $915–935 per tonne CFR, compared with $930–935 the prior week, according to the Australian Fertilizer Corporation’s weekly market summary.

Potash markets are entering a softer phase. Pupuk Indonesia issued its third 75,000-tonne MOP tender of the year for September shipment, drawing first-round offers at $440–450 per tonne CFR. Comfortable supply from Belarus, Russia, Canada and Laos is expected to keep potash well supplied through 2027, though Southeast Asian tenders provide a limited outlet as Brazil delays purchases.

European production economics remain under pressure. September Dutch TTF gas traded above €66.50 per megawatt-hour, equivalent to more than $22.70/MMBtu. At that level, indicative break-even costs for an efficient European ammonia plant approach $837 per tonne ex-works, and urea break-even sits near $605 per tonne.

“The urea market is being supported by cost and logistics rather than a broad demand surge,” AFC CEO Stein Haugan said. “India’s next move and Brazil’s willingness to transact will determine whether the current firmness can be sustained.”

Source: Australian Fertilizer Corporation

San Francisco- and Paris-based agtech startup Tellia has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding to expand its voice AI platform, which allows farmers, agronomists and field teams to capture operational data through phone calls, voice notes, text messages, WhatsApp and email. The round was led by European venture capital firm Revent, with participation from Grey Silo Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Cereal Docks Group, Jeriko, operated by Techmind, and Fund F.

The company is targeting a persistent problem in agricultural technology: much of the information generated in the field never reaches farm management software because entering it requires screens, forms and manual data entry. Tellia’s system converts spoken or written updates into structured records linked to specific fields, crops, crews and operations. The platform can also use those records to answer operational and agronomic questions. Tellia says its approach is designed around how individual farms operate, rather than forcing teams into standardized software workflows.

Turning field conversations into data

Agricultural businesses generate large amounts of operational information every day, including crop scouting observations, disease sightings, spray decisions, crew updates and other field notes. Yet workers who spend most of their time outdoors may have little opportunity or incentive to enter that information into conventional software.

Tellia is positioning voice as an alternative interface. A field worker can describe an observation or task in natural language, while the company’s AI processes the conversation and converts it into structured information. Users can interact with the system through channels that are already part of their daily routines rather than learning another specialized application.

The company also says its system can work across languages, an important consideration for agricultural operations that employ multilingual field teams. Tellia’s website says users can communicate in different languages, including mixed-language conversations, while the platform organizes the resulting information into farm-specific records.

The approach reflects a broader shift in agricultural technology toward AI systems that can interact directly with operational data. John Deere, for example, recently introduced an AI assistant that uses farm, field and machine data to provide farmers with operational insights.

Tellia reports 80% daily usage among U.S. field teams

Tellia launched initially in the U.S. and says it has achieved 80% daily active usage among field teams within two months of onboarding. Its deployments include almond producer Campos Brothers Farms and Duckhorn wineries, according to the company.

The startup is now seeking to replicate that adoption in Europe. Its European deployments include the Institut Français de la Vigne et du Vin, the Val de Gascogne cooperative and German plant breeder KWS Saat. The company was founded in 2024 by Coline Labadie de Faÿ and Vincent Trastour, who met through Entrepreneur First before developing the business between Paris and San Francisco.

Tellia’s transatlantic operating model is also intended to address concerns around agricultural data. The company says it combines U.S. commercial development with European approaches to data protection, security and confidentiality. Its website states that farm observations, reports and field records are not shared with third parties.

From voice assistant to agricultural AI layer

The new funding will also support development of Tellia’s agentic AI suite, which the company wants to position as an interface between field workers and existing agtech systems.

Rather than requiring agricultural software providers to replace their existing products, Tellia plans to allow them to integrate its technology via an API. Users would communicate with the Tellia layer by voice or other familiar channels, while the system would capture, structure and interpret the information before returning records or recommendations to the partner’s software.

The strategy could allow existing agricultural platforms to increase the amount of field data captured without redesigning their user interfaces. Tellia says its first agritech partners are already integrating the technology.

“The Ag industry keeps facing the same challenge: the people who spend their days in the field spend their evenings at a keyboard,” Labadie de Faÿ, Tellia’s CEO and co-founder, said in the funding announcement. She argued that the problem is less about the availability of agricultural data than the difficulty of capturing it through software designed primarily for office environments.

Revent General Partner Otto Birnbaum said the investor believes a voice-first approach could help agriculture move toward what he described as an “agentic data age,” with Tellia providing a data layer intended to improve operational efficiency and productivity.

Investors see a broader role for AI in agriculture

The funding comes as investors continue to back AI applications aimed at addressing operational problems across the agricultural value chain. Recent deals have included AI-driven crop development, agricultural lending and farm-management technologies, reflecting growing interest in software that can work directly with complex agricultural data.

For Tellia, the immediate focus is narrower: making it easier for information generated in the field to be entered into digital systems. The company says its 13-person team will expand in the U.S. and Europe as it develops the technology and grows its customer base.

If the model scales, Tellia’s role could extend beyond a standalone farm assistant. The company’s longer-term ambition is to become a voice interface connecting agricultural workers with the wider software infrastructure used to manage farms, crops and field operations.

Corteva’s seed and genetics spin-off Vylor will host its first investor day on September 15, presenting a corn pipeline that the company says will generate more than $2 billion in incremental revenue by 2035, including licensing income. The roadmap spans seven new technology platforms targeting yield, disease resistance and insect control.

A cornerstone is the gene-edited multi-disease resistant corn platform, which uses gene editing to combine resistance to four major North American diseases — Northern Corn Leaf Blight, Grey Leaf Spot, Southern Rust and Anthracnose Stalk Rot — in a single genetic location. Vylor says the product aims to protect against approximately $1 billion in annual yield losses. USDA regulatory authorization is already in place, with a U.S. commercial launch targeted for 2028.

Later this decade, Vylor expects to launch short-stature corn and a new below-ground insect control platform featuring two proprietary non-Bt modes of action. In Latin America, Abranvo technology targeting fall armyworm is planned for 2028.

The spin-off separates from Corteva on October 1 and will be led by CEO Chuck Magro. Vylor holds more than 4,000 germplasm patents and 2,000 biotechnology patents, along with the globally recognized Pioneer and Brevant seed brands.

Source: AgNavigator

Global urea prices fell to $443 per metric ton on September 4, easing 0.06% on the day as signs of progress in Strait of Hormuz negotiations and China’s return to the export market reduced supply anxiety. The benchmark is up 13.6% over the past month and 13.2% year-on-year, according to Trading Economics.

China’s decision to relax urea export restrictions has been the primary catalyst for the pullback. Beijing has expanded its 2026 export allowance to roughly 5–5.5 million tonnes, and July shipments jumped to approximately 403,000 tonnes from just 7,000 tonnes in June. The India RCF tender absorbed 1.78 million tonnes at prices below $400 per tonne, reinforcing the easing trend.

Seasonal factors are also weighing on the market. Northern Hemisphere planting has largely concluded, and Brazil, one of the world’s largest fertilizer importers, has postponed purchases and imported less urea than a year earlier. European production economics remain strained, with Dutch TTF gas above €66.50 per megawatt-hour, placing break-even costs for an efficient European urea plant near $605 per tonne ex-works.

The market outlook hinges on the pace of Hormuz diplomacy, Brazil’s return to active buying and the size of China’s remaining export quota.

Source: Trading Economics

Scientists in Croatia are investigating whether discarded sheep wool can be converted into organic fertilizer, potentially creating a new agricultural use for a material that is currently difficult for farmers to dispose of. Croatia produces about 900 metric tons of sheep wool annually, but the country lacks an organized system for collecting and managing much of the material after shearing.

Researchers at the Institute of Agriculture and Tourism in Poreč are studying the production of sheep-wool pellets through the “Sheep Wool Pellets – Future Choice in Sustainable Vegetable Production” (InoBioPov) project. The research is examining whether processed wool can be incorporated into vegetable production systems, providing nutrients to plants while helping soil retain moisture.

The project reflects a broader effort to develop circular-economy solutions for agriculture by turning materials traditionally treated as waste into productive inputs. If the research confirms that wool pellets can improve soil conditions and plant development, the approach could provide Croatian farmers with a natural fertilizer option while creating an additional outlet for sheep wool with limited commercial value.

Sources: Croatia Week; Institute of Agriculture and Tourism in Poreč

The 2026 Farm Progress Show, held September 1–3 in Boone, Iowa, introduced two new features that expanded the event’s focus on precision agriculture and agronomy. The show drew nearly 600 exhibitors from around the world, building on 161,000 attendees in 2025.

The Agronomy Zone, spanning about 6 acres in the southeast corner of the showgrounds, brought research-grade crop plots with side-by-side product comparisons in real growing conditions. More than half of the participating companies were first-time exhibitors. Ag PhD co-hosts Brian and Darren Hefty led daily guided plot tours, with plots professionally managed by DM Crop Research Group.

The Drone Zone, making its first FAA-approved appearance at the Boone location, provided a 500-by-500-foot enclosed demonstration area where multiple exhibitors flew drones simultaneously. The format allowed producers to compare aerial application equipment side by side, a format several attendees described as the show’s most practical addition.

Major equipment launches included AGCO’s new Fendt 1100 Vario MT Gen2 track tractor, Massey Ferguson N-Series split/narrow row planters and Precision Planting’s ArrowTube seed orientation system. Bayer also used the show to announce its blockbuster crop science launch pipeline and Vylor unveiled its corn innovation roadmap.

A green ammonia pilot at the University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris is scaling toward a target of approximately one metric ton of zero-carbon ammonia per day, making it one of the most advanced small-scale renewable fertilizer projects in the United States. The facility uses on-site electrolyzers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then combines the hydrogen with nitrogen separated from ambient air using the century-old Haber-Bosch process — powered entirely by Minnesota wind energy.

How the Morris green ammonia facility works

The plant eliminates fossil fuels from the ammonia synthesis chain. Conventional ammonia production uses natural gas both as a feedstock (for hydrogen) and as an energy source, generating roughly 1.6 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of ammonia. At Morris, the hydrogen comes from water electrolysis and the energy comes from the local wind resource, producing ammonia with no direct carbon emissions.

The core engineering challenge is operating the Haber-Bosch reactor under fluctuating renewable power. Wind output varies by the hour, and the electrolyzers must ramp up and down accordingly. The ability to run reliably under these conditions is the innovation the research team hopes to commercialize — not the chemistry itself, which is well understood, but the integration with variable renewable supply.

The economic case for decentralized green ammonia production

For Minnesota, the opportunity may be more economic than environmental. The state’s farmers spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on anhydrous ammonia, virtually all of it produced from natural gas at large centralized plants and shipped in by rail and truck. A network of small wind-powered ammonia plants could keep a portion of those dollars circulating in rural communities, the university argues.

At current natural gas prices, conventional ammonia costs roughly $400–500 per tonne at the plant gate. Green ammonia remains more expensive, with most pilot-scale projects reporting costs above $700 per tonne. Closing that gap depends on continued declines in electrolyzer capital costs, access to cheap wind power and potential revenue from federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Where Minnesota fits in the green ammonia landscape

The Morris project sits at the small, decentralized end of a rapidly growing global green ammonia sector. At the industrial scale, Envision Energy’s Chifeng facility in China has reached 300,000 tonnes per year of capacity and shipped the world’s first commercial green ammonia cargo in February 2026. Chile’s $11 billion HNH Energy project and a $1 billion green ammonia hub in Jordan represent the utility-scale end of the market.

Minnesota’s approach targets a different niche: community-scale production for local agricultural use, bypassing long supply chains and reducing exposure to global shipping disruptions like the Strait of Hormuz crisis that has roiled fertilizer markets throughout 2026.

Outlook for wind-powered fertilizer production

The research team expects to publish performance data from the scaling phase later this year. If the economics prove viable at the 1-tonne-per-day level, the model could be replicated across the Upper Midwest’s wind corridor, where strong wind resources and concentrated fertilizer demand create favorable conditions for decentralized green ammonia production.

Source: University of Minnesota

Key facts about the Minnesota green ammonia project

A University of Illinois study points to decades of industry consolidation as a structural driver behind persistently high fertilizer prices, adding an analytical dimension to the political and legal scrutiny facing major producers. The number of nitrogen fertilizer producers in the United States fell from 46 to 13 between 1984 and 2008, a 72% decline, according to USDA data cited in the research.

Today, four companies control roughly 75% of the domestic nitrogen fertilizer market. The concentration gives producers significant pricing power, a concern echoed by USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden, who has publicly described North American producers as a “duopoly.”

The finding arrives as the DOJ antitrust division is actively investigating Nutrien, Mosaic, CF Industries, Koch and Yara for possible pricing violations. Two separate class-action lawsuits have been filed by farm plaintiffs accusing the same companies of coordinating production cuts to inflate prices.

The study suggests that while geopolitical supply shocks and energy costs explain cyclical price spikes, the underlying market structure amplifies their impact and slows price recovery. For growers already facing a 15.3% increase in fertilizer expenses in 2026, the consolidation dynamic adds a layer of cost pressure that supply normalization alone may not resolve.

Source: Farmdoc Daily

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has certified the Farmers Innovation Fund as a Rural Business Investment Company, a designation that allows Farm Credit System institutions to invest as limited partners. The fund, announced July 20, channels early-stage capital to companies developing technologies that improve farm productivity, profitability and resilience.

What separates the fund from a conventional agtech venture vehicle is its farmer-first structure. Producers in the network help select portfolio companies, run field validation trials and hold pooled equity in the startups they prove out. The model is designed to shorten the path from invention to adoption by testing technologies under real farming conditions before broad market launch.

“This certification connects our rural entrepreneurs with the resources they need to bring new technologies to market while ensuring farmers can evaluate those tools where it matters most — right in the field,” said USDA Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Joe Gilson.

The fund is a joint initiative of AgLaunch Holdings and has secured multiple limited partner commitments. USDA says the program will prioritize projects that strengthen agricultural supply chains and create new opportunities for rural businesses, entrepreneurs and manufacturers.

Source: USDA Rural Development

Corteva has announced the intended nine-person board of directors for its standalone crop protection company, the entity formerly known as “New Corteva,” ahead of the planned separation in the fourth quarter of 2026. Greg Page, retired chairman and CEO of Cargill, will serve as independent board chair.

Luke Kissam, the former chairman and CEO of Albemarle, joined Corteva on June 1 as CEO of the crop protection business and will become CEO and a board member of the standalone company at separation, now confirmed for October 1.

The new crop protection company will operate an asset-light, innovation-driven model, leveraging what Corteva describes as a first-mover advantage in nature-inspired technologies. The company intends to make targeted investments to support growth in markets that reward differentiation.

Most of Corteva’s existing board will continue with the crop protection entity. Karen Grimes, Marcos Lutz, Chuck Magro and Kerry Preete will not remain; Magro will lead Vylor, the seed and genetics spin-off. Both companies plan to host an investor day on September 15.

China is set to supply at least 1.2 million metric tons of urea to India under the latest tender from state agency Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The volume represents roughly two-thirds of the 1.7 million tonnes RCF sought, with shipments required to leave loading ports by September 24.

The lowest offers came in at $390.25 per tonne CFR India’s east coast and $393.65 on the west coast, submitted by Ameropa, according to Profercy. That compares with approximately $444–$449 per tonne in India’s June tender and the record $935–$959 per tonne India paid in an emergency April purchase of 2.5 million tonnes during the height of the Strait of Hormuz crisis.

Beijing’s return to the export market has been the dominant factor in easing global nitrogen tightness. China’s 2026 urea export allowance has expanded to roughly 5–5.5 million tonnes, and July exports reached about 403,000 tonnes, up from just 7,000 tonnes in June. Through July, total Chinese exports stood at approximately 907,000 tonnes.

The trade is the clearest sign yet that the urea price decline that began in midsummer has supply-side momentum behind it, not just seasonal demand weakness.

Source: Bloomberg

Bayer Crop Science is entering a new phase of product launches aimed at delivering 10 blockbuster innovations over the next decade, each with peak sales potential exceeding €500 million. The company outlined the pipeline September 2 at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

Plenexos, a new insecticide targeting sucking pests across soy, cotton, fruits and vegetables, has already launched in Colombia. Mexico, Brazil and the United States are next. Bayer says Plenexos allows farmers to use up to 75% less active ingredient compared with existing products while safeguarding pollinators and beneficial insects.

Vyconic, described as the industry’s first soybean trait stack with tolerance to five herbicides, is expected for U.S. and Canadian introduction in 2027. Bayer says Vyconic will be introduced in elite-performing varieties that have demonstrated a yield increase of more than 2 bushels per acre over existing genetics. The Preceon Smart Corn System, which integrates short-stature corn with digital capabilities through FieldView, is already being commercialized.

In Brazil, Intacta 5+ is expected for the 2027/2028 growing season, bringing five herbicide tolerances along with new insect protection traits designed specifically for that market.

“We are delivering on the promises we made and bringing a new generation of game-changing products to farmers,” said Rodrigo Santos, head of Bayer’s Crop Science division.

Corteva’s advanced seed and genetics spin-off, Vylor, has unveiled a corn innovation pipeline that includes the industry’s first trait designed specifically to improve both yield and yield stability. In field trials across the Americas, corn carrying the new trait delivered an average gain of 3 bushels per acre, with some plots reaching 10 bushels per acre above controls, the company said September 1 at the Farm Progress Show.

The announcement comes ahead of Corteva’s planned separation into two publicly traded companies on October 1, 2026. Vylor will house Pioneer, Brevant and regional seed brands, anchored in more than 100 years of breeding expertise and 4,000 germplasm patents.

The multi-year roadmap extends to 2035 with seven new technology platforms. Among them is a gene-edited multi-disease resistant corn product targeting Northern Corn Leaf Blight, Grey Leaf Spot, Southern Rust and Anthracnose Stalk Rot simultaneously. USDA regulatory authorization for the MDR corn is already in place, with a U.S. commercial launch targeted for 2028. Vylor also plans to introduce short-stature corn and a below-ground insect control platform with two proprietary non-Bt modes of action by 2031.

“Our pipeline changes the game through 2035,” said Sam Eathington, chief technology officer of the future Vylor. The company expects the corn portfolio to generate more than $2 billion in incremental revenue by 2035, including licensing income.

Source: Corteva

USDA’s September 2026 farm income forecast projects net farm income at $158.4 billion, a decline of 2.6% in nominal terms and 5.5% after adjusting for inflation compared with a revised 2025 estimate of $162.7 billion. The deterioration is driven almost entirely by rising production costs, which USDA now places at $492.8 billion, $15.1 billion above the agency’s February projection.

Fertilizer, lime and soil conditioner expenses account for a large share of the increase, rising $5.3 billion, or 15.3%, to $39.6 billion. Fuel and oil costs are up $4.8 billion, or 28.8%, to $21.6 billion. Together with a $7.4 billion jump in livestock and poultry purchases, these three categories make up more than four-fifths of the total expense increase, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

“We continue to see a downturn in the farm economy and production expenses continue to increase,” AFBF economist Faith Parum told Brownfield Ag News. “As long as there continues to be conflict in the Middle East, we’ll see higher fuel and fertilizer prices.”

Direct government payments, including ad hoc and farm bill program payments, are forecast at $47.4 billion in 2026, up nearly 70% from 2025. The payments provide critical short-term support, the AFBF notes, yet their scale underscores the gap between market returns and the cost of producing food, fiber and fuel. Median farm household income from farming is expected to total negative $467 in 2026.

Crop cash receipts offer some relief, with USDA projecting $253 billion in 2026, up 6.1% from 2025. The gains remain uneven, and the expense side continues to outpace revenue improvements across most operations.

Source: American Farm Bureau Federation

USDA farm income 2026: key questions answered

Sulfur prices have topped $1,000 per metric ton in global spot markets, fundamentally reshaping the economics of phosphate fertilizer production, according to a new analysis by University of Illinois agricultural economists at Farmdoc Daily. The report traces the price surge directly to two supply shocks: the ongoing Strait of Hormuz disruption that has blocked sulfur exports from Middle Eastern oil refineries, and Russia’s ban on sulfur exports that removed the world’s second-largest source of traded supply.

Combined, those two disruptions have eliminated access to roughly two-thirds of globally traded sulfur. Because sulfuric acid is the primary reagent used to convert phosphate rock into plant-available phosphoric acid, DAP, and MAP, the cost surge feeds directly into phosphate fertilizer prices. Farmdoc calculates that sulfur alone now accounts for a substantially higher share of DAP production costs than before the crisis, with the raw material cost increase explaining much of the gap between current DAP prices above $820 per metric ton and the $500–$600 range that prevailed in early 2025.

The analysis warns that 2027 U.S. farm budgets should anticipate phosphate fertilizer costs at or above current levels. With no near-term resolution to the sulfur supply shortage in sight, the report says growers face a prolonged period of input cost pressure that may force further reductions in phosphate application rates, particularly for lower-margin crops. Variable-rate application and soil-test-based nutrient management are cited as partial offsets, but do not eliminate the underlying cost problem.

Source: Farmdoc Daily

Higher fertilizer prices are structural rather than cyclical, and growers should plan for an extended period of elevated input costs, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division. The analysis, published in August, focuses on phosphate markets and warns that global phosphate production capacity is forecast to drop 13% from pre-crisis levels due to damaged infrastructure, prolonged outages, and raw material shortages that cannot be resolved quickly.

The report identifies three reinforcing factors behind the structural price shift. First, the sulfur supply crisis triggered by the Strait of Hormuz disruption has removed a critical raw material from global markets, raising phosphoric acid production costs across every major producing region. Second, Russia’s ban on sulfur exports has compounded the shortage, leaving phosphate producers in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia competing for a sharply reduced pool of available sulfur. Third, capacity additions that were expected to offset the losses — primarily in Morocco and Saudi Arabia — face their own timeline risks and will not fully compensate before 2028 at the earliest.

For U.S. farmers, the implication is that phosphate application cutbacks already underway this fall could extend into 2027 and beyond. CoBank said the price environment creates an opening for precision nutrient management, soil testing, and alternative phosphorus sources — but cautioned that no substitute can fully replace conventional phosphate fertilizer at a commercial scale.