Abstract :
In its policy and indicators work on agriculture and the environment, the OECD has been addressing a large range of policy relevant issues of concern to countries, including the issue of nutrient use in agriculture. The policy issue in the case of agricultural nutrient use is to maintain sufficient nutrients to ensure the sustainable use of soil resources to improve crop and forage productivity, while reducing surplus nutrients from agriculture from causing water and air pollution. It is against this background that the paper describes the overall policy context of the nutrient use issue, in particular nitrogen use. The paper examines the use of the soil surface nitrogen balance indicator in the OECD work to analyse national trends in nitrogen use, and examines the data requirements, availability and coverage to complete nitrogen balance calculations. A brief overview of the current situation and recent trends in national nitrogen balance across OECD Member countries is provided. Finally, the paper discusses the interpretation of trends in national nitrogen balances, including consideration of benchmarks and targets, linkages with other agri-environmental issues, such as water quality, and also future challenges for quantitative work on nitrogen use issue in agriculture.
