Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia

Sam Coggins (), Andrew J. McDonald, João Vasco Silva, Anton Urfels, Hari Sankar Nayak, Sonam Rinchen Sherpa, Mangi Lal Jat, Hanuman Sahay Jat, Tim Krupnik, Virender Kumar, Ram. K. Malik, Tek B. Sapkota, Amaresh Kumar Nayak and Peter Craufurd
Additional contact information
Sam Coggins: Australian National University
Andrew J. McDonald: Cornell University
João Vasco Silva: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT-Zimbabwe)
Anton Urfels: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Hari Sankar Nayak: Cornell University
Sonam Rinchen Sherpa: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)
Mangi Lal Jat: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Hanuman Sahay Jat: ICAR—Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR)
Tim Krupnik: Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program
Virender Kumar: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Ram. K. Malik: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)
Tek B. Sapkota: International Maize and Wheat Improvement center (CIMMYT)
Amaresh Kumar Nayak: ICAR—National Rice Research Institute
Peter Craufurd: NARC Research Station

Nature Sustainability, 2025, vol. 8, issue 1, 22-33

Abstract: Abstract Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production mitigates climate change, limits water pollution and reduces fertilizer subsidy costs. Nevertheless, strategies for increasing NUE without jeopardizing food security are uncertain in globally important cropping systems. Here we analyse a novel dataset of more than 31,000 farmer fields spanning the Terai of Nepal, Bangladesh’s floodplains and four major rice-producing regions of India. Results indicate that 55% of rice farmers overuse nitrogen fertilizer, and hence the region could save 18 kg of nitrogen per hectare without compromising rice yield. Disincentivizing this excess nitrogen application presents the most impactful pathway for increasing NUE. Addressing yield constraints unrelated to crop nutrition can also improve NUE, most promisingly through earlier transplanting and improving water management, and this secondary pathway was overlooked in the IPCC’s 2022 report on climate change mitigation. Combining nitrogen input reduction with changes to agronomic management could increase rice production in South Asia by 8% while reducing environmental pollution from nitrogen fertilizer, measured as nitrogen surplus, by 36%. Even so, opportunities to improve NUE vary within South Asia, which necessitates sub-regional strategies for sustainable nitrogen management.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01496-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:8:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41893-024-01496-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01496-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().