What is AAPFCO?
We state “AAPFCO defined” on our sales sheets and tout it’s recognition with our nitrogen stabilizer products but, what does that mean? Why is it important?
AAPFCO stands for the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials. It is an organization of fertilizer control officials from each state in the United States, who are actively engaged in the administration of fertilizer laws and regulations. Fertilizer industry personnel often interact with an AAPFCO officials for routine fertilizer inspections.
Each year AAPFCO issues an official publication that includes multiple definitions for fertilizer products. To define products accurately, AAPFCO “strives to make science-based decisions and seeks research-based studies to support its decisions. All decisions must be approved by a majority vote by committee and by membership.”
The active ingredients present in all our nitrogen stabilizers are urease and nitrification inhibitors defined by AAPFCO and are permitted to claim Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer (EEF) properties. This qualifies our products for national and state conservation stewardship programs. For example, the NRCS CSP program for Nutrient Management (Code 590) states that, “Enhanced efficiency fertilizers, used in the state must be defined by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) and be accepted for use by the State fertilizer control official, or similar authority, with responsibility for verification of product guarantees, ingredients (by AAPFCO definition) and label claims.”
AAPFCO Definitions:
Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer
These fertilizers can achieve improved efficiency of nutrient use and minimize the potential of nutrient losses to the environment. They achieve this through mechanisms that slow the release of plant available nutrients into the soil or extend the time that available nutrients remain in the soil.
Urease Inhibitor
A substance which inhibits hydrolytic action on urea by the urease enzyme. When applied to soils the effect of the urease inhibitor is less urea nitrogen lost by ammonia volatilization. (Official 1997)
Nitrification Inhibitor
A substance that inhibits the biological oxidation of ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen. (Official 2001)
Author: Ethan Enochs