Nutrients and Fertilizer Application

4R Nutrient Stewardship allows farmers to maximize their fertilizer investment and crop yields.

Feeding the World Sustainably

Canadian farmers are already global leaders in sustainable agriculture. Nitrogen use efficiency, a measure of how effectively crops use nutrient inputs, sits at 64 per cent across Canada’s cropland as of 2020, surpassing the world average of 50 per cent. Fertilizer plays a critical role in that success, helping farmers grow more food on less land while protecting soil, water, and air quality.

Through the 4R Nutrient Stewardship framework, the Right Source of nutrients at the Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place, Canadian growers continue to advance practices that balance productivity, profitability, and environmental responsibility. By following 4R principles, farmers maximize the return on their fertilizer investment while maintaining the long-term health of their land.

Learn more about 4R

Key Issues

Ensure Farmers Have the Support and Tools They Need

Farmers are stewards of the land, but they are also business owners that need to protect the profitability of their farm. Providing farmers with the tools they need ensures the profitability of thousands of Canadian small business owners and food security. Streamlining product approvals, removing unnecessary red tape, and developing straightforward, impactful programs are necessary, such as a national fertilizer emissions offset protocol, which would reward farmers for 4R practices through a self-sustaining emissions reduction market.

Modernize Emissions Reporting

Canadian farmers are leaders in sustainability and have a vested interest in maintaining healthy soil and a healthy environment. To develop transparent, data-driven policies, programs, and incentives to support emissions reduction, they must be based on accurate on-farm data that reflects the realities at the farm level. Expanding data collection and integrating 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices into the National Inventory Reporting framework is necessary to properly recognize the emission reductions Canadian farmers are already achieving and to inform future policies and programming that support their continued progress.