Farmers in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are facing a conflict: to fertilize less for the environment and water, or to fertilize enough for yield and income? In the midst of this debate, the agricultural trade fair Agra in Leipzig runs until Sunday, a meeting point for the industry, politics, and science. Among other things, it deals with new technology, more efficient fertilization, and the future of agriculture. However, the central question extends far beyond the trade fair halls. Can agriculture fertilize less, survive economically, and become more independent of global crises? The starting situation is contradictory. On the one hand, nitrogen is indispensable for high yields. On the other hand, some of it ends up in groundwater. "On average, more nitrogen is being fertilized than is removed from the plants," says soil researcher Hans-Jörg Vogel from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. Long-memory soils A look at Saxony-Anhalt shows how the soils in ...