Adjusting Fertilizer to Create Low Phytate Crops

Giving too much phosphorus to wheat and barley plants has been shown to raise the amount stored as phytate, rather than as more digestible forms of phosphorus. This finding is important for two reasons: Livestock that are fed high-phytate grains excrete more phosphorus in their manure, which can pollute water. Also, phosphorus is a finite resource that could be irreplaceable once it has been thoroughly mined--which could happen in the next 25 years.

The researchers found that soil phosphorus levels may affect grain phytate levels as much as plant breeding can, offering two complementary solutions to the nutritional and environmental problems caused by high phytate levels in grains. Besides being more environmentally sound, getting the application rate for phosphorus fertilizers just right might improve the nutrients delivered by grain crops such as wheat and barley.

Not only is the phosphorus in low-phytate grain crops more digestible by people, but low-phytate grains free up minerals essential to human nutrition: zinc, manganese and iron.