Modern agriculture strongly relies on applications of large amounts of industrially produced nitrogen fertilizer. However, 50-70% of nitrogen fertilizer cannot be used by crops. The excess applied nitrogen is converted to nitrate through nitrification by soil microorganisms, then leaches into groundwater as a pollutant. It is also converted into nitrous oxide, 298 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂, which causes global warming and climate change. Therefore, the technology that can maintain crop production while reducing the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilization, which far exceeds the processing capacity of the global ecosystem, is needed. Biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) technology developed by JIRCAS can improve crop productivity by using the crop’s capacity to suppress soil nitrification and improve the efficiency of nitrogen cycling in agriculture. Through the BNI International Consortium, JIRCAS is leading the world's BNI research.

To solve environmental problems such as nitrate pollution and nitrous oxide emissions from farmland by improving nitrogen use efficiency, our activities through the BNI International Consortium to produce locally adapted varieties of upland crops with enhanced BNI capacity and develop technologies such as crop rotation systems using BNI will be conducted.

• Development of BNI-enabled crops and BNI-based production systems
• Elucidation of the factors to establish novel sustainable food systems with BNI
• Leading the BNI International Consortium through BNI research and promotion of international collaborative research on BNI

Mexico, India, Colombia, developed countries

Researchers and producers of field crops such as wheat, maize, sorghum, and Brachiaria pasture, and related stakeholders in the food value chain 

YOSHIHASHI Tadashi (Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division)