It’s been a thing for hundreds of years. That’s why agriculture traditionally rotated crops and planted beans every 3rd season or so. I’m not sure what if anything is deferent about this species of corn, except perhaps that it is itself a desirable crop with more market value.
We stopped doing this and moved to artificial fertilizers in the 20th century because it vastly improved crop yields, and is cheaper.
> I’m not sure what if anything is deferent about this species of corn
This species of corn has weird roots halfway up which drip goop down on the ground. The goop contains nitrogen fixing bacteria from the soil which pull nitrogen out of the air to fertilize the soil.
It is massively different from what you say. It would vastly reduce farm runoff while increasing yields. All facts contained within the article.
Beans have been used for thousands of years without fertilizer. They restore the nutrients in the ground by exactly the same process as this maize, because it is the exact same nitrogen-fixing bacteria at work.
I'm pooh-pooh'ing the idea because this isn't any more practical than rotating beans to restore a field was. These microbes don't fix nitrogen anywhere fast enough to supply acceptable yields. You end up with fields giving out 3-4x less end product with this strategy vs. using artificial fertilizer. You're not going to feed the worlds population with replenishing crops.
We stopped doing this and moved to artificial fertilizers in the 20th century because it vastly improved crop yields, and is cheaper.