Countries influence the trade-off between crop yields and nitrogen pollution

Wuepper, David; Clec’h, Solen Le; Zilberman, David; Mueller, Nathaniel D.; Finger, Robert

doi:10.1038/s43016-020-00185-6

Cited by 49 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Moreover, the target of "Zero Growth Strategy" can be achieved when implementing a combined scenario with higher SNUpE levels while maintaining an increase in average yields. This point also supports the findings of Wuepper et al (2020) that national governments could reduce global nitrogen pollution without sacrificing much agricultural production.…”

Section: Comparison With Other Studies and Uncertaintysupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Policy matters, especially when it comes to the correction of policy distortion related to fertilizer use (Gu et al 2015;Wu et al 2018;Kanter et al 2020;Wuepper et al 2020). Greening the subsidy by incentivizing the adoption of more efficient fertilizer and agricultural production technologies and practices, and facilitating best-practice adoption through farmers organizations (e.g., agricultural cooperatives) also have positive impacts on farming performance (Laborde et al 2021;Lin et al 2022a).…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security

Wang

Lin

et al. 2022

Sustain Sci

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Reactive nitrogen (N) is a requisite nutrient for agricultural production, but results in greenhouse gas and air and water pollution. The environmental and economic impacts of N fertilizer use in China are particularly relevant, as China consumes the largest amount of N fertilizer in the world to meet its soaring food demand. Here, we use an agro-economic land system model (MAgPIE) in combination with a difference-in-differences econometric model to provide a forward-looking assessment of China’s fertilizer policies in terms of removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies and implementing measures to improve agricultural nutrient management efficiency. Our model results indicate that enhancing soil N uptake efficiency and manure recycled to soil alongside fertilizer subsidy removal can largely reduce N fertilizer use and N losses and abate N pollution in the short and long term, while food security remains largely unaffected. Enhancing soil N uptake efficiency appears to be decisive to achieving China’s national strategic target of zero growth in N fertilizer use. This study also finds that improving agricultural nutrient management efficiency contributes to higher land productivity and less cropland expansion, with substantial benefits for the environment and food security.

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Section: Comparison With Other Studies and Uncertaintysupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security

Wang

Lin

et al. 2022

Sustain Sci

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“…We combined data on all crops due to the effect of interaction of a variation of crops during rotations on NUE. Meanwhile, we used national data for the analysis, since policy regulations are normally determined at national scale with regard to food security objectives and agri-environmental aspects and country borders exerts signi cant impact on N pollution 15 , and gridded or subnational data on cropland N use and loss are unavailable for the period 1961-2018 in all the 150 countries. To understand the interaction between climate change and farmers' practices on N use and loss, cropland area per capita of rural population (CAPRP) is introduced.…”

Section: Full Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global warming profoundly changes the spatial distribution of nitrogen use and losses in croplands

Ren

Zhang

Reis

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Maintaining food production while reducing agricultural nitrogen pollution is a grand challenge under the threats of global climate change, which has exerted negative impacts on agricultural sustainability. How global agricultural nitrogen use and loss respond to climate change on temporal and spatial scale is rarely understood. Here we show that climate change leads to small temporal but substantial spatial changes in cropland nitrogen use and losses across global regions based on historical data for the period 1961-2018 from 150 countries. Increases of yield, nitrogen surplus and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) are identified in 24% of countries, while reductions are observed for the remaining 76% of countries, as a result of climate change in 2018. Changes of cropland area per capita of rural population (CAPRP) further intensify the variations of nitrogen use and pollution in global croplands. Yet, improving farmers’ practices with changes of CAPRP can facilitate climate change adaptation, by which global cropland NUE could be increased by one-third in 2100 compared to 2018 under future shared socioeconomic pathways. Our results would be of great significance to sustain global agriculture as well as eliminate national inequalities on food production and agricultural pollution control.

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“…Application of an optimum level of nitrogenous fertilizer can additionally reduce emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide in affecting climate change 78 . Nitrogen use is ine ciently distributed spatially across global food systems 79 . India has a large population and a large yield gap in rice production (~ 6 t/ha) 9 .…”

Section: Dilemma In Choosing Inbred or Hybrid Varietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Grain Yield Performance of Hybrid Rice in Multi-Environment Tests for Thirty-two Years in India

Muralidharan¹,

Prasad²,

Rao³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Hybrid F1genotypes with higher yields or improvement in other traits of economic value due to heterosis as compared to inbred local check varieties (ILCV), are identified and released as hybrid commercial varieties. We analyzed the yield data of 2070 hybrid F1 genotypes with ILCV evaluated over 32 years (1988 to 2019) in 2376 multi-environment experiments executed at 102 locations in the irrigated ecosystem across India. Results: The genetic gain or loss in yield of hybrid F1 genotypes estimated over the test duration was non-significant. Hybrid F1 genotypes produced 10% more grains (728-2588 kg/ha) than ILCV in many experiments at several locations. Our analyses have established that grain yields of 7.0 to 7.9 t/ha, were harvested in hybrid F1 genotypes with early, mid-early and medium maturity duration, and in those with medium slender grains at many locations in 362 experiments. A higher level of rice productivity per day (62 to 63 kg/ha) was recorded with the early maturing and mid-early maturing hybrid F1 genotypes in these tests. The N requirement to produce 8 t/ha of hybrid rice grains was 15 kg N/t as compared with a minimum of 20 kg N/t used in China. Both the hybrids and inbreds in these experiments produced grain yields that were easily attained previously with high yielding (≥10 t/ha) commercial inbreds since 1968. Unless the attainable yields are reached in inbred checks with the proven appropriate crop production practices in an experiment, it is futile to estimate a genetic gain or loss for grain yields in new genotypes developed.Conclusions: Hybrid genotypes bred in India produced yields of 7 to 8 t/ha which matched with reports from China on hybrids and green super rice; these India-bred hybrids showed higher productivity per day and shorter maturity periods than super hybrids of China. Opportunities still exist to breed indica/japonica hybrids to obtain more heterotic early and mid-early maturing hybrids, and develop efficient agronomical practices to realize the potential advantages from hybrids. There is scope for breeders to limit test locations to represent specific target areas to avoid data loss. Focusing on removing obstacles in hybrid seed production is essential to exploit yield heterosis in hybrids, and to make hybrid rice technology profitable to farmers.

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Countries influence the trade-off between crop yields and nitrogen pollution

Cited by 49 publications

References 75 publications

Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security

Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security

Global warming profoundly changes the spatial distribution of nitrogen use and losses in croplands

Grain Yield Performance of Hybrid Rice in Multi-Environment Tests for Thirty-two Years in India

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