Extremes for Increasing Nitrogen Use Efficiency: Maize Planter for Marginal Landscapes in Developing Countries and Optical Sensors for Variable Rate Technology.

Maize planted in the third world is mostly done by hand.  Few agricultural products have been conceived, developed, and manufactured specifically for third world producers. OSU has developed a hand-held planter capable of singulating seed and that can increase current production levels while simultaneously decreasing labor.  This planter can also be used to apply fertilizer N as urea, and beneath the surface of the soil so as to avoid potential surface volatilization losses.  On the opposite end of the spectrum is the use of optical sensors for determining accurate mid-season fertilizer N rates in cereal production systems.  Both offer affordable, and adoptable technologies for the third and developed world, respectively and that can ultimately increase NUE.