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Localized nitrogen management strategies can halve fertilizer use in Chinese staple crop production

Nature Food volume 5, pages 825–835 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) management is the key to achieving food security and environmental sustainability. Here we analyse N flows using a localized N management model for wheat, maize and rice in 1,690 Chinese counties, with a breakdown of multiple reactive N (Nr) loss pathways. Results show that the total N input for producing these three staple crops in China was 22.2 Tg N in 2015, of which 7.4 Tg N was harvested as grain N and 4.0 Tg N was Nr losses in the forms of NH3 (47%), NOx (10%), N2O (3%), and leaching and runoff (40%). By assuming a production level equivalent to that of the top 10% of counties with the highest N use efficiency and yields surpassing the regional average, we reveal the possibility of achieving national staple crop production targets while improving net ecosystem economic benefit in 2050 through a 49% reduction (10.4 Tg N) in synthetic N fertilizer inputs and a 52% decrease (2.9 Tg N) in Nr losses.

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Fig. 1: N budgets and distribution of Nr losses for three staple crops in China.
Fig. 2: Nr losses in different forms in the production of three staple crops in 2015 at the county level.
Fig. 3: Schematic illustration of a phased implementation of localized N management.
Fig. 4: Scenario performance in 2050.

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Data availability

Source data for the supplementary information are provided in Supplementary Dataset 1. Administrative boundaries used for the maps were sourced from GADM version 3.6 and are available from https://gadm.org/. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52225902, 52170175), the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFD1900900), the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 42207554) and the Postdoctoral International Exchange Program of China Postdoc Council in 2022 (grant number YJ20210378).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yize Liu, Minghao Zhuang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Yize Liu, Liying Zhang, Lixiao Zhang & Yan Hao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Minghao Zhuang & Rui Zhang

  3. National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Minghao Zhuang & Rui Zhang

  4. School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Xia Liang, Shu Kee Lam & Deli Chen

  5. State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arid and Semi-arid Arable Land in Northern China, Field Scientific Observation and Experiment Station of Ecological Agriculture in Miyun, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xia Liang

  6. ISA, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Arunima Malik, Mengyu Li & Manfred Lenzen

  7. Discipline of Accounting, Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Arunima Malik

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Y.L., X.L., Lixiao Zhang, Y.H. and M.Z. designed the study. Y.L. performed the data analysis. Y.L., Liying Zhang and R.Z. prepared the figures and tables. Y.L. and M.Z. wrote the Article with comments from S.K.L., D.C., A.M., M. Lenzen and M. Li.

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Liu, Y., Zhuang, M., Liang, X. et al. Localized nitrogen management strategies can halve fertilizer use in Chinese staple crop production. Nat Food 5, 825–835 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01057-z

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