Abstract
Nutrient budget is one of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agri-environmental indicators. A model was developed for regional nutrient management in Korea. In this study, a sensitivity analysis of parameters of a nutrient budget model was performed for two regions with intensive livestock farming in Korea. In the nitrogen budget, gross nitrogen surplus (GNS) and hydrospheric nitrogen surplus (hNS) were analyzed separately. For GNS, the most influential parameters were excreta production per swine in Hongseong and excreta production per beef cattle in Anseong. For hNS, N content of solid manure in swine and beef cattle were the most influential. For GNS and phosphorus surplus (PS), excreta production per livestock and the N(P) in the excreta of livestock were the predominant parameters. Livestock excreta showed a high sensitivity in both areas because the livestock headcount was high; thus, the excreta accounted for a large share of the input parameters for the model. Therefore, calculating reliable regional nutrient budgets would require further research on excreta production per livestock and the N(P) excretion in livestock. The nutrient budget model could be implemented for agri-environmental policy e.g., environment friendly regional livestock farming and sustainable integrated crop livestock systems.
Highlights
As the economy of South Korea has developed, growth in national income and changes in dietary habits have led to increased consumption of meats and processed meat products
Among all items contributing to the nitrogen input, livestock excreta had the largest share in both regions, comprising 77–81% of the total input (553 kg N ha−1 yr−1 and 647 kg N ha−1 yr−1 in Hongseong and Anseong, respectively)
In Anseong, the sensitivities of feces production by beef cattle (α1) and urine production by beef cattle (α2) regarding gross nitrogen surplus (GNS) were 38.1% and 30.2%, respectively, and the sensitivity of feces production by swine (α5) and urine production by swine (α6) was 27.7% and 19.8%, respectively. These findings suggest that the beef cattle headcount was greater in Anseong compared with Hongseong
Summary
As the economy of South Korea has developed, growth in national income and changes in dietary habits have led to increased consumption of meats and processed meat products. Specialization and upscaling in the livestock industry as part of an intensive “high-input, high-yield” approach have caused the production of an enormous volume of livestock excreta [1]. Owing to failures of communication between livestock and crop farming industries, excessive amounts of biotic and abiotic fertilizers have been entering the agricultural land area [2]. In Korea, only one-half of all fertilizers applied to agricultural land are utilized in crop production, while the rest are either accumulated in the soil or drained externally (e.g., into streams), causing a heavy environmental burden in the watershed [3]. Nutrient use has shown a downward trend owing to policies promoting environmentally sound agricultural practices, but their levels have remained high [4]. Special measures are required to counteract this emerging environmental issue in the watershed [2]
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