Since fertilizers are highly necessary, improvements in its application are necessary to reduce collateral ecological damage. Precision agriculture is developing which will hopefully reduce ecological damage from agricultural practices. Precision agriculture is the process of braking farm plots into small sections and analysing them to find out what sections need certain fertilizers and pesticides. Chemical applications are expensive, and if farmers can use more exact amounts of what is required, then farming will be cheaper and less damaging run-off will result. Crop rotation is also used to decrease mineral deficiency.
Different crops use and replenish different minerals.
By rotating crops the some mineral loss is decreased. Crop rotation is not always economically feasible, but if it is, three common crops to rotate in the Mid-West is corn, soybean, and a legume. This lessons the need for fertilizer in-put, but it does not completely solve the problem. Farmers can also leave crop residue on the field after harvesting. As in erosion control, farmers can leave corn stalks on the field.