Mapping the Sustainability Transition in Liquid and Water-Soluble Fertilizer Research: A Scopus-Based Bibliometric Analysis (2021-2026)
This Scopus-based bibliometric analysis of 201 documents from 2021 to 2026 reveals that while liquid and water-soluble fertilizer research is conceptually converging on sustainability and circular economy themes, the field remains institutionally fragmented with modest international collaboration, highlighting a need for coordinated efforts to advance resource-efficient nutrient management aligned with global sustainability goals.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
Modern farming relies heavily on mineral fertilizers, the synthetic salts that feed crops and keep global food supplies full. For decades, the standard approach has been to spread these nutrients in solid granules across fields, a method that often wastes resources. When fertilizer is applied in bulk, it does not always reach the plant roots when they need it most. Instead, excess nutrients can wash away into waterways or escape into the air as gases, creating pollution and driving up costs. To solve this, scientists and farmers have turned to a more precise alternative: liquid and water-soluble fertilizers. Because these nutrients are already dissolved in water, they can be injected directly into irrigation systems, a practice known as fertigation. This allows the food to be delivered exactly when and where the crop needs it, much like an IV drip for a patient, rather than a single, heavy dose applied days in advance. Alongside this shift in delivery, there is a growing movement to change the source of the nutrients themselves, moving away from purely synthetic chemicals toward materials recovered from agricultural waste and other byproducts.
Despite the clear potential of these methods to reduce waste and protect the environment, no one had ever taken a step back to map the entire landscape of research on this topic. A team of researchers from Uzbekistan decided to change that. They set out to understand how the scientific community is studying liquid and water-soluble fertilizers, looking specifically at the work published between 2021 and early 2026. By analyzing 201 scientific documents, they created a detailed picture of who is doing the work, where it is happening, and what ideas are driving the field forward. Their goal was to see if the research community is moving in a unified direction toward more sustainable farming or if it remains a scattered collection of isolated studies.
The researchers found that interest in this field is growing steadily. The number of published studies rose from 33 in 2021 to 47 in 2025, indicating a healthy and active area of science. However, the structure of the research community tells a more complex story. While the ideas are coming together, the people behind them are not. The study revealed that the vast majority of authors—nearly 88 percent—have written only one paper on the subject. Furthermore, international cooperation is surprisingly low, with only about 15 percent of the studies involving researchers from different countries working together. The work is heavily concentrated in just two nations, China and India, which produced more than half of all the documents. While these countries are leading the way, the lack of broad collaboration suggests that the field has not yet matured into a tightly knit global network.
When the researchers looked at the actual ideas being discussed, a clear and encouraging pattern emerged. The scientific conversation is shifting away from simple technical questions about how to mix or apply these fertilizers. Instead, the focus is increasingly turning toward sustainability and the circular economy. The most central concept in the research is the liquid fertilizer itself, which acts as a bridge connecting two major goals: delivering nutrients with extreme precision and sourcing those nutrients from waste materials like crop residues or sewage sludge. This convergence suggests that scientists are beginning to see these liquid fertilizers not just as tools for better crop yields, but as essential instruments for closing the loop on resource use. The research is moving toward a future where farming relies less on extracting new raw materials and more on recycling what already exists.
Despite this promising conceptual shift, the study highlights a significant gap between the ideas and the organization of the scientists. The field is conceptually ready to tackle major global challenges, such as feeding a growing population while reducing environmental damage, but it lacks the collaborative structure to do so efficiently. The researchers suggest that the next step is not necessarily to produce more individual studies, but to build stronger connections between the different groups working on these problems. By bringing together those who focus on precision delivery with those who focus on waste recovery, the scientific community could accelerate the transition to a more sustainable agricultural system. This mapping provides the first clear evidence that the direction is right, even if the path forward requires more teamwork than has been seen so far.
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