Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia

Coggins, S and McDonald, A J and Silva, J V and Urfels, A and Nayak, H S and Sherpa, S R and Jat, M L and Jat, H S and Krupnik, T and Kumar, Virender and Malik, R K and Sapkota, T B and Nayak, A K and Craufurd, P Q (2025) Data-driven strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of rice farming in South Asia. Nature Sustainability. pp. 1-12. ISSN 2398-9629

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Global Research Program - Resilient Farm and Food Systems
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Agriculture, Climate-change mitigation, Developing world, Environmental economics, Environmental impact
Subjects:	Others > Climate Mitigation Others > Agriculture
Depositing User:	Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited:	08 Jan 2025 05:36
Last Modified:	08 Jan 2025 05:36
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12892
Official URL:	https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01496-3
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	Analytical and written efforts from S.C., A.J.M., J.V.S., A.U., H.S.N., S.R.S., M.L.J., T.K., V.K., R.K.M., T.B.S. and P.C. were funded by Excellence in Agronomy (EIA; https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/excellence-in-agronomy/), the CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA; https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/20-transforming-agrifood-systems-insouth-asia-tafssa/), the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (S.C.), the Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship (S.C.) and CGIAR Fund Donors (https://www.cgiar.org/funders/). Field research was conducted under the USAID (USAID grant number BFS-G-11-00002), and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF grant numbers OPP1052535 and OPP1133205) supported Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA; http://csisa.org/) and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (https://www.cgiar.org/research/program-platform/climatechange-agriculture-and-food-security/). ChatGPT was used to refine the wording of <15 sentences included in the text. It was also used to simplify ~5% of the R code used for data analyses. The authors critically reviewed all suggestions provided by ChatGPT. This study is built on the generous participation in surveys from thousands of smallholder farmers. It also reflects the diligent efforts of field scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in India, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) system in India, the Department of Agriculture in Nepal and the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bangladesh. This work was also made possible by the careful data curation efforts of S. Karki (CIMMYT), M.K. Hossain (CIMMYT), P. Peramaiyan (IRRI), A. Ajay (CIMMYT), G.P. Paudel (CIMMYT), and A. Samaddar (IRRI), as well as considered advice from H. Rajan (CIMMYT). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of the acknowledged organizations.
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