Nutrient recycling potential of excreta for global crop and grassland production

Mariana Devault, Dominic Woolf and Johannes Lehmann ()
Additional contact information
Mariana Devault: Cornell University
Dominic Woolf: Cornell University
Johannes Lehmann: Cornell University

Nature Sustainability, 2025, vol. 8, issue 1, 99-111

Abstract: Abstract Nutrient recycling from wastes to agriculture can contribute to food production by closing yield gaps, yet the global amount of poorly utilized nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in excreta at a subnational scale has been insufficiently explored. The global amounts found in human excreta and poorly utilized livestock excreta represent 16% (±7%), 8% (±9%) and 14% (±6%) of crop and grassland N, P and K needs, respectively. National recycling of nutrients in poorly utilized excreta could reduce global net imports of mineral fertilizers by 41% N, 3% P and 36% K. In countries where nutrient supply through locally available livestock excreta and mineral fertilizers do not meet nutrient requirements by crops and grasslands, the recycling of poorly utilized excreta could reduce this difference by, on average, 20% N, 11% P and 13% K, therefore contributing to the move towards a circular economy between food consumption and agriculture.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01467-8 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_s41893-024-01467-8

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01467-8

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 ().