Presentation given on the 6th Nitrogen Conference in Kampala (Uganda) on 18-11-2013

1. Nitrogen Footprint of Food Production
in the EU-27 and Africa
Jan Peter Lesschen, Igor Staritsky, Adrian Leip and Oene Oenema
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

2. Outline presentation
 Introduction
 Model approach
 Comparison EU-27 and Africa
 N footprint results
 Discussion
 Conclusions
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

3. Introduction
N rehgiH
ycneiciffe
N in feed
Poultry (meat)
 Need to increase food
production and lower
environmental impact
 N footprint for EU available
 Nitrogen use efficiency is
generally low in livestock
production systems
 N footprint for Africa still
Higher N
efficiency
N rehgiH
ycneiciffe
Hi
eff
Poultry (eggs)
%02 -01
N regraL
tnirptoof %01 -2
doof gk rep
Pork (meat)
l a eV
fe e B
Higher N
efficiency
% 0 2 - 01
l a eV
N regraL
tn
Veal irptoof
Cattle (milk)
doof gk rep
fe
10-20% eB
% 01 - 2
Veal
Beef
Veal
0
20
Larger N
2-10%per kgfootprint
2-10% footprint
food
10-20%
per kg food
Larger N
Beef
Cattle (beef)
10-20%
40
60
80
Feed N recovery efficiency in edible weight (% )
Beef
100
La
fo
2-10%
per
Sutton et al. (2011), ENA report
unknown
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

4. MITERRA-Global
 A model for integrated assessment of N (C and P)
emissions from agriculture, based on MITERRA-Europe
 Global coverage
 At country and province level (n= 2467)
 Statistics (2007-2009 data)
● 40 crop types (AgroMaps and FAOSTAT)
● 12 livestock types (FAOSTAT)
 GIS maps (land cover, soil, climate, N deposition)
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

5. Excretion, emission and leaching factors
 Average crop nutrient content based on range of global
studies and data sources
 Excretion and manure management systems: IPCC 2006
guidelines and GAINS and UNFCCC for EU-27
 GHG and SOC: IPCC 2006 guidelines (Tier 1-2)
 NH3: EMEP/EEA emission inventory guidebook 2009,
Tier 2 approach, based on TAN
 N leaching and runoff: according to MITERRA-Europe
(Velthof et al., 2009)
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

6. Approach and Nr sources
 N footprint = (Ninput – Noutput) / mproduct
(Leip et al., 2013)
● Ninput: manure, mineral fertilizer, BNF, deposition
 Included reactive N sources:
● Housing and manure management
● Direct (manure, grazing, mineral fertilizer) and indirect soil
emissions
● Fertilizer production
● (Fossil fuel use)
 Allocation of N inputs and Nr emissions to feed and food
crops
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

7. Commodities / functional units
1 kg carcass of meat
- beef
- pork
- chicken
1 kg of cereals
1 kg of potato /root crop
1 kg of leguminous crops
1 kg of milk cow
1 kg of fruits and vegetables
1 kg of sugar crop
1 kg of eggs
1 kg of oil crop
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

8. Total soil N input
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

9. Harvested crop removal
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

10. Soil N surplus
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

11. Reactive N emissions
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

12. N footprint crop commodities
N footprint
Crop production
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

13. N footprint livestock commodities
N footprint
Livestock production
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

14. Nr emissions per crop commodity
EU-27
Africa
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

15. Nr emissions per livestock commodity
EU-27
Africa
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

16. Discussion

Substantial uncertainties, especially for Africa:
● Input data (e.g. grassland yield)
● Allocation of feed to livestock species
● Allocation of manure and fertilizer to different crops
● Nitrogen content crops

Non-ruminants have lower N footprint due to better feed
conversion

N footprint based on inputs not necessarily same as N
footprint reactive N emissions
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

17. Conclusions
 Large differences in the N footprint between food
commodities, with plant-based commodities having
relatively low N losses and livestock products much
higher N losses
 N footprint for most food commodities lower in Africa
due to very low inputs, however, Nr emissions about
equal
 N footprint of food consumption more determined by diet
choices than region of food production
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013

18. Thank you
janpeter.lesschen@wur.nl
Nitrogen Conference, Uganda, 18-11-2013