Development Trend and Driving Factors of Agricultural Chemical Fertilizer Efficiency in China

Rong He,Chaofeng Shao,Run Zhao,Rongguang Shi,Zheyu Zhang

doi:10.3390/su12114607

Abstract

In China, a high input of chemical fertilizers is currently required for a relatively low increase in agricultural production, and this has resulted in prominent nonpoint source pollution and problems related to the quality of agricultural products. These phenomena threaten China’s implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG-2). To explore agricultural chemical fertilizer efficiency and the factors driving the growth in chemical fertilizer use in China, as based on an international comparative analysis of China’s chemical fertilizer input, the development trend in the application level and the efficiency in the use of chemical fertilizer in China were subject to time series analysis, and the factors influencing change were identified and analyzed using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI). The results show that: (1) The gap in agricultural chemical fertilizer efficiency is still large when comparing China with modern agricultural countries, and excessive fertilizer input is still a major problem. (2) The continuous growth in the total amount of chemical fertilizer applied in China during the past 18 years has contributed to the increase in chemical fertilizer application intensity, which provided a cumulative contribution of 85.52%, with smaller contributions from the planting structure and crop sown area. Based on the analysis of fertilizer application, the chemical fertilizer application intensity of the main grain crops was the most significant factor, accounting for about a 40.00% cumulative contribution. (3) Since 2015, the total amount of chemical fertilizers has been reduced through gradually improving the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers, reducing the application intensity of chemical fertilizers, and implementing the fallow rotation system and other measures. Of these, the reduction in application intensity was the most effective at reducing the overall amount of applied fertilizer. To meet the target for achieving sustainable agricultural development, China must still reduce its use of chemical fertilizers by at least 21.80 million tons. Based on the results of current measures and international experience, some suggestions for reducing fertilizer usage are provided.

Highlights

Fertilizer application contributes to more than 40% of grain production [1,2], which is important for China
To reduce the environmental pollution caused by the excessive use of chemical fertilizers, developed regions, such as the European Union [6], the United States [7,8,9,10], and Japan [11] started to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and initiated research on and treatment of agricultural nonpoint source pollution in the late 1980s, which achieved remarkable results
To solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by the application of chemical fertilizers in China, we used the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to analyze the trends and factors that have driven the amount and intensity of chemical fertilizer application since the 21st century, and to explore the reason for the growth in chemical fertilizer application in China

Summary

Introduction

Fertilizer application contributes to more than 40% of grain production [1,2], which is important for China. Chemical fertilizers have considerably contributed to alleviating the discordance between China’s limited arable land resources and the huge demand for food, but excessive application of chemical fertilizers has led to the serious nonpoint source pollution of farmland and problems with the quality and safety of agricultural products. To reduce the environmental pollution caused by the excessive use of chemical fertilizers, developed regions, such as the European Union [6], the United States [7,8,9,10], and Japan [11] started to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and initiated research on and treatment of agricultural nonpoint source pollution in the late 1980s, which achieved remarkable results. In 2015, China established an action plan for achieving zero growth in chemical fertilizer use for major crops by 2020, providing new models and samples for solving the chemical fertilizer environmental pollution globally and sharing their experience with developing countries. The direction and countermeasures to reduce the amount of applied chemical fertilizers must be accurately defined to provide the basis for realizing the goal of zero growth in fertilizer application by 2020, by analyzing the development trend in Chinese fertilizer application and its influencing factors, elucidating the influencing mechanism of various factors and calculating the reduction target of Chinese fertilizer use

Methods

Results

Conclusion