Contrasting Considerations among Agricultural Stakeholders in Japan on Sustainable Nitrogen Management

Athanasios Ragkos, Kentaro Hayashi, João Serra, Hideaki Shibata, Efstratios Michalis, Sadao Eguchi, Azusa Oita and Claudia Marques-dos-Santos Cordovil
Additional contact information
Athanasios Ragkos: Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organization (ELGO-DIMITRA), Terma Alkmanos, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Kentaro Hayashi: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-8604, Japan
João Serra: Centro de Estudos Florestais CEF, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal
Hideaki Shibata: Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0809, Japan
Efstratios Michalis: Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organization (ELGO-DIMITRA), Terma Alkmanos, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Sadao Eguchi: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-8604, Japan
Azusa Oita: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-8604, Japan
Claudia Marques-dos-Santos Cordovil: Centro de Estudos Florestais CEF, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Sustainable nitrogen (N) management in agriculture is one of the most important issues affecting the environmental performance of modern agriculture. It is actually well perceived that coordinated efforts and holistic approaches are required to regulate N use by farmers. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial examination of stakeholders’ views in Japan regarding N use in agriculture and challenges to increase its sustainability. The analysis was based on a questionnaire study of five types of stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, suppliers, policy makers). By means of multivariate analysis techniques it was revealed that consensus was lacking either in the acknowledgment of the causes and effects of unsustainable N management or in the challenges that need to be addressed. N losses from farms and the effects of N use were perceived but not conceived equally by all stakeholders. Organic farming and mandatory measures were the most controversial challenges, while those involving awareness, training and advisory were the most popular. This study cannot provide safe conclusions that can be generalized in the Japanese context, but it indicates domains where further research is required and orientations for future policy design towards more sustainable N use.

Keywords: nitrogen losses; farming practices; fertilizers; categorical principal component logistic regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4866/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4866/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:4866-:d:543943

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().