Long-term reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use through knowledge training in rice production in China

By Jikun Huang, Zhurong Huang, X. Jia, R. Hu, C. Xiang. 2015

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Nitrogen (N) fertilizer has been excessively used in China's crop production, resulting in nonpoint pollution and significant greenhouse gas emissions. Previous studies show that farmers can reduce N-fertilizer upon receiving knowledge training. However, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of this effort in the long term. Based on an experimental study of site-specific nutrient management for rice production in China and a unique household dataset captured over seven years, this study shows that the traditional training approach has not been effective in reducing Chinese farmers' N-fertilizer use. Persistently reducing farmers' excessive use of N-fertilizer in the long term will require intensive in-field guidance – something that requires substantial investment and institutional innovation.

Subfields: Environmental Chemistry, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7630b54527672d5f07b4f6f50da8b4a02295936c