Flax Could Hold an Answer to Farming’s Fertilizer Problem

The next breakthrough in farming may be hiding underground.

At Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Charlottetown Research and Development Centre, scientists have been studying what happens to flax plants when one of their most important nutrients becomes scarce. Their discovery: some varieties don’t simply tolerate a shortage of nitrogen. They change how they grow.

Their roots expand. Their shoots continue developing. And deep inside the plant, hundreds of genes change their activity. Now researchers believe those genetic differences could provide a roadmap for breeding flax varieties that thrive with less nitrogen fertilizer — a potentially significant development for farmers facing rising input costs and an agricultural sector under pressure to reduce its environmental footprint.

The research, led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist Dr. Bourlaye Fofana and Dr. Braulio Soto-Cerda of Chile’s Universidad Católica de Temuco, identified more than 1,000 genes that respond when flax plants experience nitrogen stress.

The bigger opportunity is figuring out which of those genes help make a plant more efficient.

Why fertilizer efficiency matters

Flax — also called flaxseed or linseed — is a relatively small crop with an outsized reputation. Its brown or golden seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fibre, and lignans, while Canada ranks among the world’s major flax producers.

But like many crops, flax needs nitrogen to reach its potential.

Farmers typically supply that nitrogen through fertilizer. The problem is that fertilizer represents a significant input cost, and plants don’t necessarily absorb all of the nitrogen applied to a field.

Nitrogen that isn’t used by the crop can move into waterways through runoff or be released into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.

That has created a deceptively simple question for plant scientists: What if crops could produce more with less?

One answer may lie in their roots.