Nitrogen (N) pollution is emerging as one of the most important environmental issues of the 21st Century, contributing to air and water pollution, climate change, and stratospheric ozone depletion. With agriculture being the dominant source, we tested whether it is possible to reduce agricultural N pollution in a way that benefits the environment, reduces farmers' costs, and increases fertilize...

Biosolids are utilized as nutrient rich fertilizer. Little material is available on benefits to forage crops resulting from fertilization with biosolids. This paper aimed to compare the effects of fertilization with biosolids versus commercial nitrogen fertilizer on growth, root formation, and nutrient value of triticale plants in a greenhouse experiment. Per treatment, five pots were seeded wi...

China’s urbanization has resulted in significant changes in agricultural land use. However, understanding of the linkages between urbanization and fertilizer use intensity is limited. Using county-level panel data for Henan Province, 1995–2008 and panel econometric models, we investigate the impact of urbanization and other socioeconomic factors on fertilizer use intensity, with a focus on the ...

The use of the 15N label for agronomic research involving nitrogen (N) cycling and the fate of fertilizer-N is well established, however, in the case of long term experimentation with perennial crops like citrus, coffee and rubber tree, there are still shortcomings mainly due to large plant size, sampling procedures, detection levels and interferences on the system. This report tries to contrib...

It is of great concern worldwide that active nitrogenous gases in the global nitrogen cycle contribute to regional and global-scale environmental issues. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) are generally interrelated in soil nitrogen biogeochemical cycles, while few studies have simultaneously examined these two gases emission from typical croplands. Field experiments were conducted to me...

Crop production is a process of multiple inputs (water and nutrients, etc.), and the relationships between the inputs and crop yield are very complex. This study used a model for data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the efficiency of irrigation-fertilization schemes for winter wheat in North China. The field experiments were conducted at the Xiaohe Irrigation Experiment Station in Centra...

Field experiment was conducted to investigate the combine use of animal manure and inorganic fertilizer on growth and yield performance of vegetable cowpea. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with seven treatments. Poultry manure, cattle manure and goat manure were evaluated with recommended level of inorganic fertilizer for vegetable cowpea. The highest cr...

The imposition of environmental regulations, such as greenhouse gas charges, to domestic manufacturing traditionally creates concerns over the impacts of those regulations on international competition and downstream product prices. The US Nitrogen fertilizer industry, an energy-intensive trade-exposed industry, has been considered by conventional metrics to be one of the most vulnerable to such...

Increasing fertilizer prices and awareness of potential impacts of excessive or badly applied nutrients on water quality has renewed interest in fertilizer management strategies that reduce nutrient inputs or improve efficacy. Fertilizer recommendations for phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in Iowa and most states of the Corn Belt are based on soil testing and maintenance of desirable soil-test ...

Low soil fertility and low microbiological activity have been widely observed in certain newly cultivated lands. To develop effective agricultural management practices that can improve quality rapidly, a field experiment was conducted on paddy fields reclaimed from unused, low-slope, hilly wasteland Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Southeast China. The six treatments were applied included (1) co...