Optimizing nitrogen fertilizer use for more grain and less pollution

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132180
• Publication Date: 2022-05-10T10:47:06Z
• Authors: Keyu Ren; Minggang Xu; Rong Li; Lei Zheng; Shaogui Liu; Stefan Reis; Huiying Wang; Changai Lu; Wenju Zhang; Hui Gao; Yinghua Duan; Baojing Gu
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Economics; Agricultural engineering; Macroeconomics; Plant Science; nitrogen management; Crop; Environmental protection; nitrogen use efficiency; Environmental pollution; Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Fertilizer; Engineering; Business; Production (economics); Agricultural economics; 2. Zero hunger; Geography; Ecology; Life Sciences; Agriculture; Nitrogen fertilizer; Pollution; 6. Clean water; Archaeology; Agricultural science; Physical Sciences; Metallurgy; Biogeochemical Cycling of Nutrients in Aquatic Ecosystems; China; Nutrient Sensing; Nitrogen; Soil Science; Yield (engineering); Environmental science; 12. Responsible consumption; 03 medical and health sciences; Environmental Chemistry; environmental sustainability; Biology; Plant Nutrient Uptake and Signaling Pathways; crop yield; 15. Life on land; Agronomy; Materials science; 13. Climate action; FOS: Biological sciences; Environmental Science; nitrogen surplus; Soil Carbon Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling in Ecosystems; Nutrient Limitation

Abstract Optimal nitrogen (N) management is critical for efficient crop production and agricultural pollution control. However, it is difficult to implement advanced management practices on smallholder farms due to a lack of knowledge and technology. Here, using 35,502 on-farm fertilization experiments, we demonstrated that smallholders in China could produce more grain with less N fertilizer use through optimizing N application rate. The yields of wheat, maize and rice were shown to increase between 10% and 19% while N application rates were reduced by 15–19%. These changes resulted in an increase in N use efficiency (NUE) by 32–46% and a reduction in N surplus by 40% without actually changing farmers’ operational practices. By reducing N application rates in line with official recommendations would not only save fertilizer cost while increasing crop yield, but at the same time reduce environmental N pollution in China. However, making progress towards further optimizing N fertilizer use to produce more grain with less pollution would require managements to improve farmers’ practices which was estimated to cost about 11.8 billion US dollars to implement.