Fertilizer in crop production; Relationship between crop production, crop yield and fertilizer use; Yield response to fertilizer; Economics of fertilizer use; Goverment programmes and policies affecting fertilizer use.
Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth and development and a key agricultural input-but in excess it can lead to a host of problems for human and ecological health. Across the globe, distribution of fertilizer nitrogen is very uneven, with some areas subject to nitrogen pollution and others suffering from reduced soil fertility, diminished crop production, and other consequences of inadequate supply. Agriculture and the Nitrogen Cycle provides a global assessment of the role of nitrogen fertilizer in the nitrogen cycle. The focus of the book is regional, emphasizing the need to maintain food and fiber production while minimizing environmental impacts where fertilizer is abundant, and the need to enhance fertilizer utilization in systems where nitrogen is limited. The book is derived from a workshop held by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) in Kampala, Uganda, that brought together the world's leading scientists to examine and discuss the nitrogen cycle and related problems. It contains an overview chapter that summarizes the group's findings, four chapters on cross-cutting issues, and thirteen background chapters. The book offers a unique synthesis and provides an up-to-date, broad perspective on the issues of nitrogen fertilizer in food production and the interaction of nitrogen and the environment.
This is a joint study involving five organisations from both the public and private sectors. The objective is to explore the future need for fertilizer required to support the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) projections of agricultural commodity production for 2015 and 2030. The paper begins by briefly reviewing attempts to identify and quantify the factors influencing the growth in demand and supply for agricultural commodities. Several studies that estimate long-term fertlizer use are also reviewed, followed by a discussion of the forecasting methods and data. The results and implications conclude the paper. The study projects growth rates of between 0.7 and 1.3 per cent, depending on assumptions about nutrient efficiency over the next 35 years