IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i3p710-d134879.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Model Approach for Yield-Zone-Specific Cost Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation by Nitrogen Fertilizer Reduction

Author

Listed:
  • Yusuf Nadi Karatay

    (Department of Technology Assessment and Substance Cycles, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
    Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany)

  • Andreas Meyer-Aurich

    (Department of Technology Assessment and Substance Cycles, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany)

Abstract

Nitrogen use in agriculture has been intensified to feed the growing world population, which led to concerns on environmental harms, including greenhouse gas emissions. A reduction in nitrogen fertilization can abate greenhouse gas emissions, however, it may result in crop yield penalties and, accordingly, income loss. Assessment tools are necessary to understand the dynamics of nitrogen management issues both in environmental and economic aspects and both at low and high aggregation levels. Our study presents a model approach, estimating yield-zone-specific costs of greenhouse gas mitigation by moderate reduction of mineral nitrogen fertilizer application. Comparative advantages of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions by nitrogen fertilizer reduction were simulated for five yield-zones with different soil fertility in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. The results suggest that differences in yield response to nitrogen fertilizer lead to considerable differences in greenhouse gas mitigation costs. Overall cost-efficiency of a regional greenhouse gas mitigation by nitrogen fertilizer reduction can be substantially improved, if crop and yield-zone-specific yield responses are taken into account. The output of this study shall help to design cost-efficient agro-environmental policies targeting with specific crop yield response functions at different sites.

Suggested Citation

  • Yusuf Nadi Karatay & Andreas Meyer-Aurich, 2018. "A Model Approach for Yield-Zone-Specific Cost Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation by Nitrogen Fertilizer Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:710-:d:134879
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/710/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/710/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark A. Sutton & Oene Oenema & Jan Willem Erisman & Adrian Leip & Hans van Grinsven & Wilfried Winiwarter, 2011. "Too much of a good thing," Nature, Nature, vol. 472(7342), pages 159-161, April.
    2. Andreas Meyer-Aurich & Jørgen Olesen & Annette Prochnow & Reiner Brunsch, 2013. "Greenhouse gas mitigation with scarce land: The potential contribution of increased nitrogen input," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 18(7), pages 921-932, October.
    3. Carolien Kroeze, 1996. "Inventory of Strategies for Reducing Anthropogenic Emissions of N 2 O and Potential Reduction of Emissions in The Netherlands," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 115-137, December.
    4. Benjamin Leon Bodirsky & Alexander Popp & Hermann Lotze-Campen & Jan Philipp Dietrich & Susanne Rolinski & Isabelle Weindl & Christoph Schmitz & Christoph Müller & Markus Bonsch & Florian Humpenöder &, 2014. "Reactive nitrogen requirements to feed the world in 2050 and potential to mitigate nitrogen pollution," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, September.
    5. Schneider, Uwe A. & Kumar, Pushpam, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Agriculture," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 23(01), pages 1-5.
    6. Uwe A. Schneider & Pete Smith, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Emission Intensities in Agriculture," Working Papers FNU-164, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jul 2008.
    7. Dave S. Reay & Eric A. Davidson & Keith A. Smith & Pete Smith & Jerry M. Melillo & Frank Dentener & Paul J. Crutzen, 2012. "Global agriculture and nitrous oxide emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(6), pages 410-416, June.
    8. Pushpam Kumar & Uwe A. Schneider, 2008. "Greenhouse gas emission mitigation through agriculture," Working Papers FNU-155, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Feb 2008.
    9. Thomas Fellmann & Ignacio Perez Dominguez & Heinz Peter Witzke & Torbjorn Jansson & Diti Oudendag & Alexander Gocht & David Verhoog, 2012. "Agricultural GHG emissions in the EU: an exploratory economic assessment of mitigation policy options," JRC Research Reports JRC69817, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Andreas Meyer-Aurich & Yulia Lochmann & Hilde Klauss & Annette Prochnow, 2016. "Comparative Advantage of Maize- and Grass-Silage Based Feedstock for Biogas Production with Respect to Greenhouse Gas Mitigation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-14, June.
    11. Michael MacLeod & Vera Eory & Guillaume Gruère & Jussi Lankoski, 2015. "Cost-Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures for Agriculture: A Literature Review," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 89, OECD Publishing.
    12. David J. Pannell, 2006. "Flat Earth Economics: The Far-reaching Consequences of Flat Payoff Functions in Economic Decision Making," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 28(4), pages 553-566.
    13. Isabel Teichmann, 2014. "Climate Protection through Biochar in German Agriculture: Potentials and Costs," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 4(4), pages 17-26.
    14. Meyer-Aurich, Andreas & Gandorfer, Markus & Trost, Benjamin & Ellmer, Frank & Baumecker, Michael, 2016. "Risk efficiency of irrigation to cereals in northeast Germany with respect to nitrogen fertilizer," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 132-138.
    15. Athanasios Balafoutis & Bert Beck & Spyros Fountas & Jurgen Vangeyte & Tamme Van der Wal & Iria Soto & Manuel Gómez-Barbero & Andrew Barnes & Vera Eory, 2017. "Precision Agriculture Technologies Positively Contributing to GHG Emissions Mitigation, Farm Productivity and Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-28, July.
    16. Neil R. Miller, 2006. "Is Site-Specific Yield Response Consistent over Time? Does It Pay?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(2), pages 471-483.
    17. Pierre Mérel & Fujin Yi & Juhwan Lee & Johan Six, 2014. "A Regional Bio-economic Model of Nitrogen Use in Cropping," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 67-91.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Meyer-Aurich & Yusuf Nadi Karatay, 2022. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Costs of Reduced Nitrogen Fertilizer," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ana Clara Borrego & Rute Abreu & Francisco Alegria Carreira & Filipe Caetano & Ana Lúcia Vasconcelos, 2023. "Environmental Taxation on the Agri-Food Sector and the Farm to Fork Strategy: The Portuguese Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    2. Athanasios Balafoutis & Bert Beck & Spyros Fountas & Jurgen Vangeyte & Tamme Van der Wal & Iria Soto & Manuel Gómez-Barbero & Andrew Barnes & Vera Eory, 2017. "Precision Agriculture Technologies Positively Contributing to GHG Emissions Mitigation, Farm Productivity and Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-28, July.
    3. Kragt, Marit E. & Pannell, David J. & Robertson, Michael J. & Thamo, Tas, 2012. "Assessing costs of soil carbon sequestration by crop-livestock farmers in Western Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 27-37.
    4. Kashif Raza Abbasi & Qingyu Zhang, 2024. "Augmenting agricultural sustainability: Investigating the role of agricultural land, green innovation, and food production in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6918-6933, December.
    5. Lila Singh-Peterson & Fynn De Daunton & Andrew Drysdale & Lorinda Otto & Wim Linström & Ben Lyons, 2025. "Diversifying Rural Economies: Identifying Factors That Discourage Primary Producers from Engaging in Emerging Carbon and Environmental Offsetting Markets in Queensland, Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-17, July.
    6. Huarui Gong & Jing Li & Zhen Liu & Yitao Zhang & Ruixing Hou & Zhu Ouyang, 2022. "Mitigated Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cropping Systems by Organic Fertilizer and Tillage Management," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.
    7. Oliver Lazarus & Sonali McDermid & Jennifer Jacquet, 2021. "The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    8. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    9. Meyer-Aurich, Andreas & Karatay, Yusuf Nadi, 2019. "Effects of uncertainty and farmers' risk aversion on optimal N fertilizer supply in wheat production in Germany," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 130-139.
    10. Telmo José Mendes & Diego Silva Siqueira & Eduardo Barretto Figueiredo & Ricardo de Oliveira Bordonal & Mara Regina Moitinho & José Marques Júnior & Newton La Scala Jr., 2021. "Soil carbon stock estimations: methods and a case study of the Maranhão State, Brazil," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16410-16427, November.
    11. Ancuta Isbasoiu & Pierre-Alain Jayet & Stéphane De Cara, 2021. "Increasing food production and mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union: impacts of carbon pricing and calorie production targeting," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 409-440, April.
    12. Connor, Melanie & de Guia, Annalyn H. & Quilloy, Reianne & Van Nguyen, Hung & Gummert, Martin & Sander, Bjoern Ole, 2020. "When climate change is not psychologically distant – Factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable farming practices in the Mekong river Delta of Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    13. Franco-Luesma, Samuel & Álvaro-Fuentes, Jorge & Plaza-Bonilla, Daniel & Arrúe, José Luis & Cantero-Martínez, Carlos & Cavero, José, 2019. "Influence of irrigation time and frequency on greenhouse gas emissions in a solid-set sprinkler-irrigated maize under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 303-311.
    14. Anna Kocira & Mariola Staniak & Marzena Tomaszewska & Rafał Kornas & Jacek Cymerman & Katarzyna Panasiewicz & Halina Lipińska, 2020. "Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-41, September.
    15. Kerstin Jantke & Martina J. Hartmann & Livia Rasche & Benjamin Blanz & Uwe A. Schneider, 2020. "Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Knowledge and Positions of German Farmers," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-13, April.
    16. Kathrin Hasler & Hans-Werner Olfs & Onno Omta & Stefanie Bröring, 2016. "Drivers for the Adoption of Eco-Innovations in the German Fertilizer Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-18, July.
    17. Miomir Jovanović & Ljiljana Kašćelan & Aleksandra Despotović & Vladimir Kašćelan, 2015. "The Impact of Agro-Economic Factors on GHG Emissions: Evidence from European Developing and Advanced Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-21, December.
    18. Maraseni, Tek Narayan & Cockfield, Geoff, 2015. "The financial implications of converting farmland to state-supported environmental plantings in the Darling Downs region, Queensland," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 57-65.
    19. Zhao, Rongqin & Liu, Ying & Tian, Mengmeng & Ding, Minglei & Cao, Lianhai & Zhang, Zhanping & Chuai, Xiaowei & Xiao, Liangang & Yao, Lunguang, 2018. "Impacts of water and land resources exploitation on agricultural carbon emissions: The water-land-energy-carbon nexus," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 480-492.
    20. Wang, Wen, 2015. "Intégrer l'agriculture dans les politiques d'atténuation chinoises," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/14999 edited by Perthuis, Christian de.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:710-:d:134879. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.