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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Where are we today?

Nitrogen use efficiency is

important



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



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



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 ?



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



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



-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



European agriculture is more a part of the solution than of the problem

16

CONCLUSIONS

Presentation of Tor Holba, one of our Vice-President of Board, at Food, Fertilizers and Natural...

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