The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy recently announced $5 million in funding to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and partner institutions to develop a new variety of corn called NSave that will reduce nitrogen fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining crop yield.
The funding is part of the Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen's Toll on Emissions program, which aims to develop technologies that reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use in corn and sorghum farming - key crops for U.S. ethanol production. Preliminary work on the project was funded by the Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council.