Nitrogen budget of Indian agriculture: trends, determinants and challenges

Praveen Koovalamkadu Velayudhan (), Niranjan Sivalingam (), Girish Kumar Jha (), Alka Singh () and Himanshu Pathak ()
Additional contact information
Praveen Koovalamkadu Velayudhan: ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Niranjan Sivalingam: ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Girish Kumar Jha: ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Alka Singh: ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Himanshu Pathak: Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 26, issue 4, No 81, 10225-10242

Abstract: Abstract The discord between the nitrogen (N) fertilizer use and the actual N requirement in Indian agriculture is of enormous concern. When N is overused, it emerges as a threat to the environment, and crop yields are affected when it is underused. Nutrient budgeting is a useful tool in assessing the inflows and outflows of nutrients to the agricultural system and formulating future strategies. We constructed a nitrogen budget for Indian agriculture for 1961–2017. The N input to Indian croplands increased from 4.87 million tons (Mt) to 24.08 Mt during this period. Among the different components of N use in 2017, the contribution of fertilizer is the highest (70%), followed by biological N fixation (16%), manure (9%), and atmospheric deposition (4%). The analysis portrayed Indian agriculture’s transformation from the N deficit value of − 0.61 Mt in 1961 to a surplus-value of 1.21 Mt as of 2017. The crop N use efficiency during the period decreased from 72 to 55%. Since the policies and socio-economic factors are the commonly studied drivers of N fertilizer use, crop production factors have not received due attention. We dissect the contribution of these factors to N fertilizer use. The fertilizer application rate (FAR) is the most important among the major crop production factors that drive N fertilizer use. Our findings propose that the surplus N in Indian agriculture, hastened by higher FAR, may pose serious sustainability issues if not addressed.

Keywords: Nitrogen budget; Sustainability; Cropped area; Crop type; Fertilizer application rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03142-y 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:spr:endesu:v:26:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03142-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03142-y

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().