Presentation of Tor Holba, one of our Vice-President of Board, at Food, Fertilizers and Natural...
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Transcript of Presentation of Tor Holba, one of our Vice-President of Board, at Food, Fertilizers and Natural...
Nitrogen use efficiency on farm
Tor Holba
Fertilizers Europe Conference 2011
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Crops absorb mineral nutrients and water from the soil
Mineral nutrients are essential building blocks for crops
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Mineral fertilizers replace nutrients that
are exported with the harvest
Organic
substance,
humus
Soil
P
K
Mg
…
Export of nutrients
with the harvest
NPK
Supply of crop residues
and organic fertilizer
The soil gets depleted without mineral fertilizers
N
S
Losses to air
NPK
Losses from soil
Mineralisation
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Source: own calculations based on Broadbalk long-term trial in Rothamsted/UK and annual Yara field trials (1996-2010)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
With N fertilizer 1 year without N long term without N
Grain yield t per ha
Soil depletion can be observed in
long-term experiments
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Today, nearly 50% of the world’s population
is nourished from the use of mineral fertilizers
with fertilizer without fertilizer
0
2
4
6
8
Billion people
Source: adopted from Erisman et al. (2008), Nature Geoscience
48% People nourished
by use of
mineral fertilizers
without
additional mineral
fertilizer
Today
On soils depleted of nutrients, crops can
not grow to their yield potential
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
no N optimum N
Climate gas emission (kg CO2eq/10 t grain)
CO2 release due to additional land use
needed to compensate for lower yield
Intensive best practice agriculture is the way forward re
food security and environment sustainability
Optimum fertilizer contributes to low
climate gas emissions
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Europe (EU-27)
9%
1%*
Based on UNFCCC (2008), Bellarby et al. (2008), *Fertilizers Europe
Production of mineral N fertilizer
Emissions from agriculture
Energy,
Waste,
Industry,
etc. (90%)
Total: ~ 5 bn t CO2eq
GLOBAL
Land use change for agriculture
(12% ) = ~ 6 bn t CO2)
Energy,
Waste,
Industry,
etc. (74%)
Production of mineral N
fertilizer (0.8%)*
Emissions from agriculture (14%)
Total: ~ 49 bn t CO2eq
Contribution of Agriculture to
Climate gas emissions
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1999/2000 2007/2008
Source: Witzke & Noleppa (2010), Research Report
net use of land for imports into EU (Mio ha)
Land used outside Europe to
produce agricultural goods for
European consumption
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Where are we today?
Nitrogen use efficiency is
important
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Crop production
N Fertilizer consumption
% (1990 = 100%)
Today EU produce more crops with less
nitrogen consumption
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
NUE (%) *
Source: FAO, Fertilizers Europe, Yara
* NUE = crop N removal / mineral N input * 100
N import with feed is not considered
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
N2O from agricultural soils (Mio t CO2eq)
Source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC, 2011)
Today Europe has the highest Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) of any region in the world.
In Europe (EU 15) NUE has increased
during the last 20 years while N2O
emissions from agricultural soils have
decreased
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Efficient N fertilizer products tailored
to the growing conditions
N fertilizer management tools to
better adjust fertilizer application rate
and timing to crop requirements
Pag
e12
How to further improve NUE ?
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
85 85
89
93
70
80
90
100
Urea UAN CAN CN
NU
E (
%)
Avg. of 15 field trials with winter wheat at a N supply of 160 kg/ha
Impact of different nitrogen fertilizers
and nitrogen forms on NUE
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
Good Agricultural Practices: Examples of tools developed
by the European fertilizer industry
• Covers the entire value chain
• Mandatory to Fertilizers Europe members
• Regularly audited
Fertilizers Europe’ s Product
Stewardship Program
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
10%
Average yield and N application of 23 trials with winter wheat, 2001-2008)
Farmer practice
+ 6%
grain yield
N application
rate
- 14%
More grain yields at a lower N application rate result in an improved NUE
Example how such tools like
precision farming technologies can
improve NUE
Food, Fertilizers and Natural
Resources, 19 October 2011
European agriculture is more a part of the solution than of the problem
16
CONCLUSIONS