ARPA-E funds 9 projects to reduce synthetic corn fertilizer in corn and sorghum for $38M

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $38 million for 9 projects to develop technologies that reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use in corn and sorghum farming – key crops for U.S. ethanol production. The Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen’s Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE) program aims to reduce those fertilizers by implementing innovation solutions through the application of crop breeding, genetic engineering, and microbial technologies that will reduce agriculture-related emissions and lower operating costs for American farmers. 

TEOSYNTE projects will develop a variety of plant and microbial bio-design strategies such as, but not limited to, altering plant physiology, root architecture, or using microbes to increase delivery of nitrogen to plants. The program’s biotechnological advances could, in turn, enable transformative change across the wider agriculture sector.