Summary
Nitrogen (N) is crucial for crop productivity. However nowadays more than\nhalf of the N added to cropland is lost to the environment, wasting the\nresource, producing threats to air, water, soil and biodiversity, and\ngenerating greenhouse gas emissions. Based on FAO data, we have\nreconstructed the trajectory followed, in the past 50 years, by 124\ncountries in terms of crop yield and total nitrogen inputs to cropland\n(manure, synthetic fertiliser, symbiotic fixation and atmospheric\ndeposition). During the last five decades the response of agricultural\nsystems to increased nitrogen fertilization has evolved differently in the\ndifferent world countries. While some countries have improved their agroenvironmental\nperformances, in others the increased fertilization has\nproduced low agronomical benefits and higher environmental losses. Our\ndata also suggest that, in general, those countries using a higher\nproportion of N inputs from symbiotic N fixation rather than from synthetic\nfertilizer have a better N use efficiency.
Outcomes reported
Referenced by Nature Reviews food production environment report as citation 6; likely supports topic area: land use / agriculture / food systems; nutrient cycling / nitrogen / phosphorus / eutrophication. Topics: land use / agriculture / food systems; nutrient cycling / nitrogen / phosphorus / eutrophication Evidence type: Research article / other Source report: Nature Reviews food production environment report Ref#: Nature Reviews food production environment report #6 Original: Lassaletta, L., Billen, G., Grizzetti, B., Anglade, J. and Garnier, J. Fifty-year trends in nitrogen use efficiency of world cropping systems. Environmental Research Letters 9, 105011 (2014).
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