Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia
Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production mitigates climate change, limits water pollution and reduces fertilizer subsidy costs. Nevertheless, strategies for increasing NUE without jeopardizing food security are uncertain in globally important cropping systems. Here we anal...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
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Nature Research
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169504 |
| _version_ | 1855532384332546048 |
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| author | Coggins, Sam McDonald, Andrew Silva, Joao Vasco Urfels, Anton Nayak, Hari Sherpa, Sonam Rinchen Jat, Mangi Lal Jat, Hanuman Sahay Krupnik, Timothy J. Kumar, Virender Malik, Ram Sapkota, Tek Nayak, Amaresh Kumar Craufurd, Peter Q. |
| author_browse | Coggins, Sam Craufurd, Peter Q. Jat, Hanuman Sahay Jat, Mangi Lal Krupnik, Timothy J. Kumar, Virender Malik, Ram McDonald, Andrew Nayak, Amaresh Kumar Nayak, Hari Sapkota, Tek Sherpa, Sonam Rinchen Silva, Joao Vasco Urfels, Anton |
| author_facet | Coggins, Sam McDonald, Andrew Silva, Joao Vasco Urfels, Anton Nayak, Hari Sherpa, Sonam Rinchen Jat, Mangi Lal Jat, Hanuman Sahay Krupnik, Timothy J. Kumar, Virender Malik, Ram Sapkota, Tek Nayak, Amaresh Kumar Craufurd, Peter Q. |
| author_sort | Coggins, Sam |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production mitigates climate change, limits water pollution and reduces fertilizer subsidy costs. Nevertheless, strategies for increasing NUE without jeopardizing food security are uncertain in globally important cropping systems. Here we analyse a novel dataset of more than 31,000 farmer fields spanning the Terai of Nepal, Bangladesh's floodplains and four major rice-producing regions of India. Results indicate that 55% of rice farmers overuse nitrogen fertilizer, and hence the region could save 18 kg of nitrogen per hectare without compromising rice yield. Disincentivizing this excess nitrogen application presents the most impactful pathway for increasing NUE. Addressing yield constraints unrelated to crop nutrition can also improve NUE, most promisingly through earlier transplanting and improving water management, and this secondary pathway was overlooked in the IPCC's 2022 report on climate change mitigation. Combining nitrogen input reduction with changes to agronomic management could increase rice production in South Asia by 8% while reducing environmental pollution from nitrogen fertilizer, measured as nitrogen surplus, by 36%. Even so, opportunities to improve NUE vary within South Asia, which necessitates sub-regional strategies for sustainable nitrogen management. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace169504 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Nature Research |
| publisherStr | Nature Research |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1695042025-11-12T04:58:32Z Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia Coggins, Sam McDonald, Andrew Silva, Joao Vasco Urfels, Anton Nayak, Hari Sherpa, Sonam Rinchen Jat, Mangi Lal Jat, Hanuman Sahay Krupnik, Timothy J. Kumar, Virender Malik, Ram Sapkota, Tek Nayak, Amaresh Kumar Craufurd, Peter Q. nitrogen-use efficiency climate change mitigation agriculture data environmental economics environmental impact Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production mitigates climate change, limits water pollution and reduces fertilizer subsidy costs. Nevertheless, strategies for increasing NUE without jeopardizing food security are uncertain in globally important cropping systems. Here we analyse a novel dataset of more than 31,000 farmer fields spanning the Terai of Nepal, Bangladesh's floodplains and four major rice-producing regions of India. Results indicate that 55% of rice farmers overuse nitrogen fertilizer, and hence the region could save 18 kg of nitrogen per hectare without compromising rice yield. Disincentivizing this excess nitrogen application presents the most impactful pathway for increasing NUE. Addressing yield constraints unrelated to crop nutrition can also improve NUE, most promisingly through earlier transplanting and improving water management, and this secondary pathway was overlooked in the IPCC's 2022 report on climate change mitigation. Combining nitrogen input reduction with changes to agronomic management could increase rice production in South Asia by 8% while reducing environmental pollution from nitrogen fertilizer, measured as nitrogen surplus, by 36%. Even so, opportunities to improve NUE vary within South Asia, which necessitates sub-regional strategies for sustainable nitrogen management. 2025 2025-01-20T22:09:13Z 2025-01-20T22:09:13Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169504 en https://github.com/RiceNUE/Data-driven-strategies-to-improve-nitrogen-use-efficiency-of-rice-farming-in-South-Asia Open Access application/pdf Nature Research Coggins, S., McDonald, A. J., Silva, J. V., Urfels, A., Nayak, H. S., Sherpa, S. R., Jat, M. L., Jat, H. S., Krupnik, T., Kumar, V., Malik, Ram. K., Sapkota, T. B., Nayak, A. K., & Craufurd, P. (2025). Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia. Nature Sustainability, 8, 22–33. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01496-3 |
| spellingShingle | nitrogen-use efficiency climate change mitigation agriculture data environmental economics environmental impact Coggins, Sam McDonald, Andrew Silva, Joao Vasco Urfels, Anton Nayak, Hari Sherpa, Sonam Rinchen Jat, Mangi Lal Jat, Hanuman Sahay Krupnik, Timothy J. Kumar, Virender Malik, Ram Sapkota, Tek Nayak, Amaresh Kumar Craufurd, Peter Q. Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title | Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title_full | Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title_fullStr | Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title_short | Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia |
| title_sort | data driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in south asia |
| topic | nitrogen-use efficiency climate change mitigation agriculture data environmental economics environmental impact |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169504 |
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