Benefits of Using the 4Rs

Agriculture Must Respond To The Pressures of Increasing Population and Regulation

4R nutrient stewardship can help improve agricultural productivity:

• Optimizing nutrient management is simply good business in dealing with fluctuations in prices of fertilizers and other inputs, as well as in process of crops sold.
• Higher crop yields are well documented with better crop and soil management.
• Improved fertilizer efficiency increases the quantity produced per acre for each unit of nutrient applied, without sacrificing yield potential.

4R nutrient stewardship can help minimize impact to the environment:

• Adopting nutrient stewardship contributes to the preservation of natural ecosystems by growing more on less land.
• Retaining nutrients within a field’s boundaries and in the crop rooting zone greatly reduces the amount that is not utilized by plants and thereby escapes into the environment as pollution.