Integrated plant nutrient management

Calculation

The Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index is the Euclidean distance between a country’s normalized nitrogen use efficiency and yield values and a reference point (90 kg N ha-1 yr-1). Lower values indicate a country has higher nitrogen use efficiency and a higher land use efficiency, whereas higher values indicate the opposite. We multiply values by -1 so that higher values represent improved nitrogen management. Values were retrieved from the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/, accessed ).

Definition

This represents the inverse of values in the agricultural Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index from 2020, which combines data on nitrogen use efficiency and land use efficiency (crop yield) published by Zhang et al. to provide a measure of the environmental efficiency of agricultural production.

Relevance

Sustainable production depends on nitrogen management. Nitrogen inputs are important for improving low crop yields; however, intensive crop systems mine nutrients from the soil, which if not recovered, will degrade soil fertility and lower long-term crop yields.