Managing nitrogen in maize production for societal gain.

ABSTRACT: Highly productive agriculture is essential to feed humanity, but agricultural practices often harm human health and the environment. Using a nitrogen (N) mass-balance model to account for N inputs and losses to the environment, along with empirical based models of yield response, we estimate the potential gains to society from improvements in nitrogen management that could reduce health and environmental costs from maize grown in the US Midwest. We find that the monetized health and environmental costs to society of current maize nitrogen management practices are six times larger than the profits earned by farmers. Air emissions of ammonia from application of synthetic fertilizer and manure are the largest source of pollution costs. We show that it is possible to reduce these costs by 85%

SUBMITTER: Goodkind AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10597588 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature