Open AccessBalancing food security and environmental sustainability by optimizing seasonal-spatial crop production in Bangladesh
Author(s) -
Man Li,
Zhe Guo,
Wei Zhang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac0be4
Subject(s) - food security , sustainability , environmental science , agriculture , production (economics) , agricultural productivity , agricultural engineering , food processing , sustainable agriculture , natural resource economics , agroforestry , business , economics , geography , ecology , engineering , chemistry , archaeology , food science , macroeconomics , biology
The intensification of crop production has been identified as one of the major drivers of environmental degradation. While significant advances could still be made with more widespread adoption of sustainable intensification technologies that address the agronomic efficiency of nitrogen fertilizers, the dynamic use of agricultural land across seasons and associated crop-specific responses to fertilizer applications have so far been largely overlooked. This paper explores the potential for improving the economic-environmental performance of crop production through spatially integrated modeling and optimization, as applied to Bangladesh. Results show that per-billion-Taka nitrogen loss from soil would decline by 83% from the baseline level through factoring in crop-specific, seasonal and spatial variations in crop nitrogen-use efficiency and nitrogen transport. The approach should complement other policy analysis and decision-support tools to assess alternative options for maximizing the positive outcomes of nitrogen fertilizers with regard to farm income and food security, while maintaining environmental sustainability.