Green nitrogen transition: The potential of legumes in control environment agriculture

The GreeNTrans project aims to revolutionize synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production by leveraging the biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) potential of legume plants.

The project involves adapting leguminous plants for hydroponic systems and using modeling and experimentation to identify optimal conditions for maximizing BNF in controlled environment agriculture.The research focuses on four main objectives: (I) Determining the most effective concentration of rhizobia, and the ideal parameters of the hydroponic solution (pH, EC, temperature) and system (deep float, Ebb, NFT) to elicit maximum BNF. (II) Studying the influence of allelopathic substances to enhance the reusability of the hydroponic solution, and integrating leguminous plants with leafy vegetables to replace synthetic nitrogen. (III) Evaluating the quality, productivity, and nitrogen cycle of leafy vegetables grown with BNF. (IV) Assessing and applying the most effective methods on other plants, and developing a methodology to achieve the highest yields with BNF.The project promises novel insights into the nitrogen cycle in plants, aiming to optimize BNF in hydroponic systems, thus ensuring higher product quality, consistent yields for farmers, and safer food for consumers.

The consortium includes three leading institutions: Lithuanian Research Center for Agriculture and Forestry, the University of Helsinki, and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.