Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential from fertilizer manufacture and application in India

• Published in: International journal of agricultural sustainability Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 176 - 185
• Main Authors: Tirado, Reyes, Gopikrishna, S.R, Krishnan, Rajesh, Smith, Pete
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis Group 01.08.2010; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: air pollution; Ammonia; application rate; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; climate change mitigation potential; crop production; ecological farming; Emissions; Fertilizers; gas emissions; Greenhouse effect; greenhouse gas emissions; Greenhouse gases; literature reviews; manufacturing; Nitrogen; nitrogen fertilizers; Nitrous oxide; pollution control; quantitative analysis; Raw materials; Rice; Sustainable agriculture; synthetic nitrogen fertilizer; India; China, People's Rep
• ISSN: 1473-5903; 1747-762X
• DOI: 10.3763/ijas.2009.0422

Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers, by both very energy-intensive manufacture and inefficient N use in farm soils, contribute rationally to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and, thus, climate change. India consumes ∼14Mt of synthetic N per year, of which about 80 per cent is produced, and is the second-largest producer and consumer in the world, after China. We estimate that GHG emissions from synthetic N fertilizer in India reached ∼100Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 -e) in 2006/2007; about half of these emissions resulted from the 11Mt of synthetic N produced in the country that year (48Mt of CO 2 -e) and the other half resulted from the 14Mt of N applied to Indian farm soils in the same year (51Mt of CO 2 -e, ranging between 28 and 163Mt of CO 2 -e). Emissions from synthetic N fertilizers represent 6 per cent of India's total anthropogenic emissions, comparable to cement industry and to the whole road transport system. There is significant potential to mitigate these emissions: savings from increased N use efficiency and from shifting away from synthetic fertilizer could reduce total fertilizers emissions to 37Mt of CO 2 -e, and the contribution of fertilizers to India's emissions would drop from 6 to 2 per cent.