Use: What is needed to Support Sustainability?

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

Authors

  • Robert L. Mikkelsen
  • Claudia R. Binder
  • Emmanuel Frossard
  • Fridolin S. Brand
  • Roland W. Scholz
  • Ulli Vilsmaier
Increased demands for agricultural output per unit of land area must be met in a way that encourages improved efficiency and better stewardship of natural resources, including phosphate rock. Modern crops remove between 5 and 35 kg P/ha, with P removal exceeding 45 kg P/ha for high-yielding maize. In situations such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where soil fertility is low and P removal exceeds average inputs of 2 kg P/ha/year, the resulting nutrient depletion severely restricts yields (e.g., maize yields < 1,000 kg/ha/year) and accelerates soil degradation. In other regions, excessive P inputs produce economic inefficiencies and increase the risk of P loss, with negative environmental consequences. During the year of application, plants recover 15–25 % of the added P, with the remaining fraction converting to less soluble forms or residual P which becomes plant available over time. Improving P efficiency requires a balance between the imperatives to produce more food while minimizing P losses. Utilizing transdisciplinary approaches, a number of social, economic, and environmental goals can be simultaneously achieved if progress is made toward short- and long-term food security and global P sustainability. This chapter provides an overview of efforts to improve P use efficiency in agriculture ranging from promising germplasm, improved crop, and soil management scenarios, additives in animal diets to reduce P inputs and surplus P in the manure, and opportunities for P recycling in food and household waste. Challenges and opportunities associated with each option are discussed and transdisciplinary case studies outlined.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSustainable Phosphorus Management : A Global Transdisciplinary Roadmap
EditorsR.W. Scholz, A.H. Roy, F.S. Brand, D.T. Hellums, A.E. Ulrich
Number of pages40
Place of PublicationDordrecht
PublisherSpringer Netherlands
Publication date01.01.2014
Edition1
Pages207-246
ISBN (print)978-94-007-7249-6, 978-94-024-0246-9
ISBN (electronic)978-94-007-7250-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2014