Schröder, J.J. and Smit, A.L. and Cordell, L. and Rosemarin, A. (2011) Improved phosphorus use efficiency in agriculture: A key requirement for its sustainable use. Chemosphere, 84 (6). pp. 822-831.
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Abstract
Mineral phosphorus (P) fertilizers processed from fossil reserves have enhanced food production over the past 50 years and, hence, the welfare of billions of people. Fertilizer P has, however, not only been used to lift the fertility level of formerly poor soils, but also allowed people to neglect the reuse of P that humans ingest in the form of food and excrete again as faeces and urine and also in other organic wastes. Consequently, P mainly moves in a linear direction from mines to distant locations for crop production, processing and consumption, where a large fraction eventually may become either agronomically inactive due to over-application, unsuitable for recycling due to fixation, contamination or dilution, and harmful as a polluting agent of surface water. This type of P use is not sustainable because fossil phosphate rock reserves are finite. Once the high quality phosphate rock reserves become depleted, too little P will be available for the soils of food-producing regions that still require P supplements to facilitate efficient utilization of resources other than P, including other nutrients. The paper shows that the amounts of P applied in agriculture could be considerably smaller by optimizing land use, improvement of fertilizer recommendations and application techniques, modified livestock diets, and adjustment of livestock densities to available land. Such a concerted set of measures is expected to reduce the use of P in agriculture whilst maintaining crop yields and minimizing the environmental impact of P losses. The paper also argues that compensation of the P exported from farms should eventually be fully based on P recovered from ‘wastes’, the recycling of which should be stimulated by policy measures.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Fertilizer; Land use; Manure; Phosphorus; Efficiency; Surplus |
| Author Affiliation: | Agrosystems Department, Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Centre, PO Box 616, 6700 AP Wageningen, The Netherlands |
| Subjects: | Agricultural Engineering |
| Divisions: | General |
| Depositing User: | Mr Siva Shankar |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Sep 2013 05:07 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2013 05:07 |
| Official URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.01.06... |
| URI: | http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/11704 |
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