| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Soil & Physical Sciences Group, Agriculture & Life Sciences Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
clought{at}lincoln.ac.nz
Edited by Arvin R. Mosier, J. Keith Syers, and John R. Freney, Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009. 2004. 296 p. $40.00 paperback. ISBN 1-55963-710-2.
The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) has joined forces with the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme to develop the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI). The goal of the INI is to develop a sustainable approach to managing N utilization for food and energy while minimizing the release of active N compounds to the environment. This book presents the initial step in the development of INI's science base and is an updated international assessment of the efficiency and consequences of fertilizer N use.
The book is conveniently broken into several sections that include crosscutting issues, low and high input systems, interactions and scales relating to fertilizer N use and efficiencies, and the challenges that still exist in meeting the worldwide demand for food and fiber while minimizing detrimental effects to the environment. Case studies are presented for different countries and different agricultural systems. For instance, low N input systems in Denmark are shown to have reduced their N surpluses, maintained productivity, and increased overall N use efficiency from 42 to 52% over the last 15 years; a case study from the U.S. Midwest demonstrates how advanced technologies such as calibrated manure application equipment can be utilized to achieve reduced N inputs and maintain productivity.
Thought provoking facts are constantly presented to the reader; for example, "Current data suggest that about 50% of the fertilizer N applied in the world is lost" or the fact that "The use of controlled-release fertilizer has almost doubled in the last 10 years, but still only accounts for only 0.15% of the total fertilizer N used." The information presented will surely assist in providing the rationale and stimulus for further research to improve the fate of fertilizer N in agricultural systems and to reduce emissions to the environment.
Nitrogen cycling and N use efficiencies are discussed at many scales from experimental plots to global-regional scales. For example, the text has an interesting discussion on how the transfer of agricultural products between the world's regions results in a redistribution of N. Another chapter, using country and regional examples, discusses how societal priorities and processes have driven N fertilizer accessibility and its use.
In summary, this is not a book on the minutiae of potential N transformation processes that fertilizer N can undergo in agricultural systems. Look elsewhere for that. Rather, it is a book that paints a broader picture and is a synthesis of recent knowledge that all policy makers, researchers, and graduate students involved in, or contemplating, the study of N fertilizer will find compulsory and thought provoking.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
