Journal article
Nitrogen challenges and opportunities for agricultural and environmental science in India
- Abstract:
- In the last six decades, the consumption of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the form of fertilizer in India has been growing rapidly, whilst the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of cropping systems has been decreasing. These trends have led to increasing environmental losses of Nr, threatening the quality of air, soils, and fresh waters, and thereby endangering climate-stability, ecosystems, and human-health. Since it has been suggested that the fertilizer consumption of India may double by 2050, there is an urgent need for scientific research to support better nitrogen management in Indian agriculture. In order to share knowledge and to develop a joint vision, experts from the UK and India came together for a conference and workshop on “Challenges and Opportunities for Agricultural Nitrogen Science in India.” The meeting concluded with three core messages: (1) Soil stewardship is essential and legumes need to be planted in rotation with cereals to increase nitrogen fixation in areas of limited Nr availability. Synthetic symbioses and plastidic nitrogen fixation are possibly disruptive technologies, but their potential and implications must be considered. (2) Genetic diversity of crops and new technologies need to be shared and exploited to reduce N losses and support productive, sustainable agriculture livelihoods. (3) The use of leaf color sensing shows great potential to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use (by 10–15%). This, together with the usage of urease inhibitors in neem-coated urea, and better management of manure, urine, and crop residues, could result in a 20–25% improvement in NUE of India by 2030.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.2MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3389/fsufs.2021.505347
Authors
+ Natural Environment Research Council
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/02b5d8509
- Grant:
- NE/S009019/1
- NE/R000131/1
+ Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/00cwqg982
- Grant:
- BB/N013387/1
- BB/N013360/1
- BB/N013441/1
- BB/N013492/1
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Media
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems More from this journal
- Volume:
- 5
- Article number:
- 505347
- Publication date:
- 2021-02-18
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-01-08
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2571-581X
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1168019
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1168019
- Source identifiers:
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W3131138185
- Deposit date:
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2026-04-20
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Móring et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- ©2021 Móring, Hooda, Raghuram, Adhya, Ahmad, Bandyopadhyay, Barsby, Beig, Bentley, Bhatia, Dragosits, Drewer, Foulkes, Ghude, Gupta, Jain, Kumar, Kumar, Ladha, Mandal, Neeraja, Pandey, Pathak, Pawar, Pellny, Poole, Price, Rao, Reay, Singh, Sinha, Srivastava, Shewry, Smith, Steadman, Subrahmanyam, Surekha, Venkatesh, Varinderpal-Singh, Uwizeye, Vieno and Sutton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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