Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Challenges
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envc

Techno-economic assessment of agricultural land remediation measures

through nutrient management practices to achieve sustainable agricultural
production
Madhav Gholkar∗, Pradnya Thombare, Upasana Koli, Nitin Kumbhar
WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies (W-CReS), Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), The Forum, 2nd Floor, Pune Satara Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411009, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: The use of chemical fertilizers is expensive and one of the main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from
Fertilizer-induced GHG emission agriculture. On the other hand, the use of organic manure is always debated for low productivity and profitability
Nutrient management while many suggest that it is an effective strategy to improve soil fertility, reduce the production cost and miti-
Crop productivity
gate the GHG emissions from agricultural fields. The aim of this study was to assess the technical performance,
economic feasibility, and environmental sustainability of various nutrient management practices in three major
cropping systems in Maharashtra. Based on the data collected, a comparative analysis, for the benefit-cost (BC)
ratio, GHG emission, and crop productivity, was performed to evaluate the chemical, organic, integrated, and
conventional nutrient management practices. The results showed that crops managed with integrated nutrient
practices and organic manures showed a higher BC ratio, comparatively higher yield, and lower GHG emissions.
In comparison with conventional nutrient practices, the fertilizer-induced GHG intensity was reduced consid-
erably when the crops were treated with organic manure alone (60.17%) and integrated nutrient management
(52.21%). The plots treated with organic and integrated nutrient management reported positive BC ratios in most
of the crops while plots treated with chemical fertilizers and conventional practice reported negative BC ratios
in many crops. Also, the use of organic manure helps in mitigating crop losses caused by bio-physical stresses to
a certain extent. Increased use of organic inputs will bring many tangible and intangible benefits which will help
to make the agricultural production system more sustainable. The results obtained are helpful to strengthen the
recommendation of the use of organic manures to improve soil health, sustain productivity, increase profitability
and reduce the environmental footprints of agriculture production systems.

1. Introduction by faulty agricultural practices/methods followed (Bhattacharyya et al.,

2015). Ploughing in the wrong direction, lack of crop rotation, removal
The adverse effects of the Green Revolution on the agro-ecosystems or absence of farm bunds, shifting cultivation, excess use of chemical fer-
are becoming more visible now and the changing climatic conditions tilizers, lack of organic manure inputs, and injudicious use of irrigation
are making it worse (Rahman, 2015). With the growing population, de- water are the main causes of agricultural soil degradation (Lal, 2001).
grading landscapes, and roughly stable cropped areas that have been As shown in Fig. 1, India’s total consumption of chemical fertilizers
impacting agricultural output negatively and hence the sustainability had reached its peak in the year 2010–11. About 28.12 million tons of
of food production, it is increasingly becoming necessary to take land chemical fertilizers were used in the year 2010–11, out of which 12.36
remediation measures to improve soil health (Singh, 2000). million tons were imported (GoI, 2017). Though there is a slight decline
Indiscriminate and inappropriate use of agrochemicals (fertilizers in recent years, about 120–150 kg of chemical fertilizers is still being ap-
and plant protection measures) is increasing in modern agriculture plied per hectare of cultivated land (RBI, 2021). However, looking at the
which leads to deterioration of soil, water, and other natural resources historical data of fertilizer consumption and agricultural production, an
in the agro-ecosystems (Mandal et al., 2020). Unsustainable land uses increase in fertilizer application is showing diminishing returns which
accelerate soil erosion and lead to nutrient depletion and loss of organic implies that imbalance and excessive use of chemical fertilizers are not
matter and many other forms of soil degradation (Lal, 2003). In India, effective to increase the agricultural yields (Tilman et al., 2002). Exces-
much of the soil erosion and degradation in the cultivable land is caused sive use of chemical fertilizers damages micro and macro flora-fauna in
the soil and causes soil degradation (Eliazer Nelson et al., 2019). Many

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Gholkar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100492
Received 30 August 2021; Received in revised form 15 February 2022; Accepted 22 February 2022
2667-0100/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Fig. 1. Historical trends of India’s chemical fertilizer consumption and food grain production per unit consumption of chemical fertilizers (source: RBI 2021).

studies have reported that the extensive use of chemical fertilizers and ir- increased temperature, reduced number of rainy days and an increase in
rigation is not only leading to soil degradation (Singh, 2000; Eliazer Nel- the frequency of erratic high intensity showers (Ramarao et al., 2019).
son et al., 2019;) but also contaminating the aquatic ecosystems largely All these issues combined would accelerate the degradation of cultivable
by eutrophication from rainfall runoff and leaching of chemical fertiliz- land.
ers (Lu and Tian, 2017), and changing the atmospheric composition by Beside the aforementioned targets, India has also planned to re-
emission of greenhouse gases which is detrimental to the environment duce the GHG emission intensity of GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030 from
(Sutton et al., 2013). the 2005 level. Currently, the agriculture sector contributes 16% of
Degraded lands are more prone to soil erosion which displaces the the total greenhouse gas emission from the country with chemical
upper nutrient rich layer of soil and disturbs its fertility. In India, about fertilizers induced emission from agricultural soils contributing about
74 million tons of major nutrients are lost every year due to soil ero- 19.30% of agricultural emissions (MoEFCC, 2018). A recent study by
sion (Mythili and Goedecke, 2016). Therefore, to regain soil fertility Sapkota et al. (2019) showed that about 18% of the total emission
not only nutrient amendments are necessary but appropriate land man- from Indian agriculture could be reduced by adopting feasible mitiga-
agement practices are also to be followed to achieve better crop yield. tion measures. Many cost effective agricultural practices such as efficient
Though the increased use of chemical fertilizers is directly related to the utilization of fertilizers, increased use of organic manures, reduced/no-
increase in agricultural net primary productivity (Gholkar et al., 2014), tillage and appropriate water management in rice cultivation can po-
considering the trends of diminishing returns of fertilizer application tentially mitigate GHG emissions without compromising food produc-
such excessive use of chemical fertilizers would not be a viable option tion. Additionally, restoring the degraded land can enhance the carbon
both economically and environmentally. Additionally, the production sequestration in vegetation and soil. So in line with this, during the
and use of chemical fertilizers contribute to the emission of greenhouse fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Na-
gases (GHG) leading to global warming (Lal, 2004). Hence, it becomes tions Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 14) in New
necessary to follow sustainable land management and nutrient manage- Delhi, India announced that the country would work towards restoring
ment practices in agriculture to protect the soil from deterioration, re- 26 Mha degraded land by 2030 (GoI, 2019) as a part of the Nationally
duce GHG emission to achieve sustainable agricultural production. Determined Targets. All the nationally determined targets can only be
achieved by following sustainable land management practices and mak-
1.1. Relevance of the Study ing agriculture climate resilient. Adopting climate resilient agriculture
along with sustainable land management practices is needed to protect
About 30% (96.4 Mha) of India’s total geographical area is facing the natural resources, revive the degraded agricultural lands, enhance
the issue of land degradation and it is getting exacerbated by nega- crop production, and achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) tar-
tive externalities including changing climatic conditions. Moreover, the gets.
population of the country is increasing by a 1.1% growth rate; and to In Indian agriculture, the present NPK consumption ratio is 6.7:2.4:1,
achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2) target of ‘achieving which is significantly higher than the optimal NPK consumption ratio of
zero hunger’ by 2030, India needs to almost double its agricultural pro- 4:2:1. The fertilizer usage is substantially higher than the actual need,
ductivity. In 2018, India developed a plan to double the farmers’ income and this imbalance in fertilizer use has a negative impact on soil health.
(with the base year of 2015–16); and to achieve this the possible farm Knowledge of soil nutrient status is necessary to adjust the balanced fer-
based actions planned were: increase the crop productivity, increase re- tilizers does for a selected crop. The Indian Government has undertaken
source use efficiency (to reduce input cost), increase cropping intensity, the Soil Health Card Scheme across the country to provide the soil fertil-
crop diversification towards high value crops (Chand, 2017). But this ity status and to promote balanced use of fertilizers along with organic
would put an extra burden on the cultivable land. Additionally, with manures.
the changing climatic conditions and increasing aridity over the Indian Studies debated that crops managed with organic inputs alone re-
region, larger geographical areas of the country will face the issues of sulted in lower yield and increased production cost (Trewavas, 2001;

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Timsina, 2018;) while, many others have recommended organic Bhokardan cluster: It comprises 8 study villages from Jalna district of
farming to avoid degradation of agricultural land (Dumanski and Maharashtra covering about 6,989 ha area (Latitude from 20.061813’
Pieri, 2000), revive the soil health by increasing soil organic matter to 20.151901’, Longitude from 75.773088’ to 75.926482’). Bhokardan
(Doran and Zeiss, 2000), improve soil quality and sustainable agricul- block comes under the Assured Rainfall Zone. The average annual rain-
tural yield (Abawi and Widmer, 2000), harvest food of better qual- fall is about 700 to 900 mm. The zone is predominantly a kharif tract
ity and safety (Das et al., 2020), and reduce the cost of cultivation suitable for a single rainfed crop. Major crops grown are Soybean, Cot-
(Ramesh et al., 2010). However, with increasing agricultural mecha- ton, and Maize during kharif season, whereas in rabi season Wheat and
nization and declining the number of livestock (Gholkar et al, 2014) Chickpea are the dominant crops.
the availability of raw material to prepare and produce the or- Parner cluster: It comprises 3 study villages from Ahmednagar district
ganic manure such as vermi-compost, decomposed compost is lim- of Maharashtra covering about 5,861 ha area (Latitude from 19.105872’
ited. Moreover, the preparation process of various organic manures to 19.268528’, Longitude from 74.456541’ to 74.577959’). Parner block
is time consuming (Sikora, 1998) and farmers tend to go for fer- comes under the Western Maharashtra Scarcity Zone. This area too faces
tilizers that are subsidized and readily available in the market problems of low productivity and high instability as a result of inade-
(Aryal et al., 2021) Bandyopadhyay et al. (2010)., Yan et al. (2015), quate and unpredictable rainfall. The average annual rainfall in Parner
and Sommer et al. (2017) have proposed the integrated use of organic is less than 750 mm and that of the project area is less than 450 mm.
and chemical nutrient management practices to reduce production costs Major crops grown are Green gram during kharif season and Chickpea
and improve soil and crop productivity. So, it is necessary to evaluate in rabi season.
the various nutrient management practices based on their agricultural
yield, cost of cultivation and GHG emission potential to demonstrate the 1.3.1. Soil nutrient status
results to the various stakeholders for appropriate policy recommenda- Soils in the Sakri region are low in Nitrogen, high to very high Phos-
tions. phorus and Potassium with medium to slightly high levels of soil organic
content. Most of the soils in the Sakri cluster are slightly acidic in na-
ture. Soils in the Bhokardan region are low to very low in Nitrogen, high
1.2. Objectives to very high Phosphorus and Potassium with low to medium levels of
soil organic content. The majority of soils in the Bhokardan cluster are
The overall objective of this study was to assess the role of sustain- slightly alkaline in nature. Soils in the Parner region are low to very low
able agriculture practices through nutrient management including or- in Nitrogen, medium to high in Phosphorus and Potassium with low to
ganic, integrated (mixed) and chemical, to reduce the cost of cultivation medium levels of soil organic content. The soils of the Parner cluster are
and GHG emission from the agricultural production system. Techno- predominantly categorized as moderately to strongly alkaline.
economic assessment of these nutrient management practices has been
carried out to (1) evaluate the technical performance of various nutrient 1.3.2. Rainfall
management practices on crop productivity, (2) perform an economic The study area is located in the semi-arid region of India where most
assessment of various nutrient management practices followed in the of the agriculture production is highly dependent on monsoon rainfall.
selected crop production system, and (3) estimate the fertilizer induced The precipitation deficit is one of the significant reasons for crop yield
GHG emission from chemical, organic, integrated and conventional nu- losses (Verma et al., 2019; Zachariah et al., 2020). Hence, it is necessary
trient management used for crop production. to factor in the significance of the rainfall received during the study
period in the assessments.
Fig. 3 shows the percent difference in the monthly observed rain-
1.3. Study area
fall compared with monthly normal rainfall for Sakri, Bhokardan and
Parner cluster for the monsoon months in the year 2016–2018. The
Out of India’s total degraded land, Maharashtra accounts for the 2nd
rainfall data revealed that the Parner cluster had a rainfall deficit in
highest i.e. with 13.83 Mha of the degraded land; and covers 44.93% of
the majority of the monsoon months (JJAS) in the year 2016 and 2018.
the total geographical area of the state (SAC, 2016). Unirrigated (rain
Bhokardan cluster faced a major rainfall deficit in the year 2018 while
fed) agricultural land has the highest share of 53.94% i.e. 7.46 Mha,
the Sakri region has received normal and above normal rainfall during
in the total degraded land of the state. In the year 2018–19, the net
the study period. Aggravation of deficit rainfall and drought stress dur-
cropped area was 16.94 Mha out of which about 82% of the area is
ing the main cultivation (kharif) season in rain fed cropping systems is
under rain fed agriculture. Around 60% of the cultivable land is under
one of the core causes threatening agricultural productivity in India and
food grain crops, however, the state contributes only 5.8% to the na-
elsewhere. Tackling this issue with sustainable land and nutrient man-
tional food grain production. This trend indicates that it is very neces-
agement practices is the key to achieving sustainable crop productivity.
sary to increase the food grain production, but sustainably and without
deteriorating the cultivable land and local natural ecosystem. For this 2. Methodology
study, farmers were selected from seventeen villages from three districts
namely, Ahmednagar, Jalna and Dhule of Maharashtra state forming 3 2.1. Cropping systems and nutrient treatments
clusters of villages which are located in 3 different agro-climatic zones
(Fig. 2). Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in all the selected As the selected three clusters of villages belong to different agro-
villages. climatic zones, their cropping systems are also different. Of all the other
Sakri cluster: It comprises 6 study villages from Dhule district of Ma- crops cultivated, one major crop for kharif and rabi seasons was selected
harashtra covering about 6,033 ha area (Latitude from 20.838733’ to for assessment from each cluster. The crops selected to assess for their
20.923996’, Longitude from 73.917723’ to 74.000869’). Sakri block productivity, economic feasibility and GHG intensity under four differ-
comes under the Western Maharashtra Plain zone/Transition 2. This ent nutrient management practices are:
area faces twin problems of low productivity and high instability in pro-
duction as a result of inadequate and unpredictable rainfall. The average 1 Sakri: Paddy – Chickpea
2 Parner: Green gram – Rabi Sorghum
annual rainfall received is about 700 to 1200 mm. The zone is predom-
3 Bhokardan: Soybean – Wheat
inantly a kharif tract suitable for the rainfed crop. Major crops grown
are Paddy, Finger millet, Soybean, Maize, Groundnut, Pigeonpea during The majority of the farmers cultivate these crops in rain fed condi-
kharif season, whereas in rabi season Wheat and Chickpea are majorly tions with some provision of protective irrigation, if required. All agri-
taken up. cultural practices were kept common among the farmers cultivating the

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Fig. 2. Location of selected clusters of villages in three districts of Maharashtra and their respective agro-climatic regions.

Fig. 3. Percent difference in the monthly observed

Vs monthly normal rainfall at Sakri, Bhokardan and
Parner cluster in JJAS months in the year 2016–2018
(source: https://maharain.maharashtra.gov.in/).

given crop, except the nutrient management treatments. Three differ- and chemical nutrient management treatments, the RDN was applied
ent nutrient management treatments beside the conventional practice through 100% organic manures, 50% organic + 50% chemical fertiliz-
were considered to evaluate their impacts on agricultural productivity ers, and 100% chemical fertilizers, respectively. All the RDN doses in
and greenhouse gas emission. The standard recommended N:P:K fertil- each of the treatments were then calculated based on the plot wise soil
izer dose for selected crops were as follows: Paddy (100:50:50), Chick- test results and crop specific recommendations.
pea (25:50:30), Green gram (20:40:0), Sorghum (80:40:40), Wheat The nutrients were applied to the organic treatment at the time of
(120:60:40), Soybean (50:75:75). In the case of organic, integrated, land preparation via vermi-compost and FYM 15–20 days before the

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

sowing. In chemical treatment, plots received 100% of the required nu- and surface water via drainage and surface runoff and also from the
trient dose via urea, DAP, and SSP. The Integrated Nutrient Management volatilization and deposition of ammonia (NH3 ) and nitric oxide (NOx )
(INM) treatment plots received 50% of the prescribed quantity of chem- during agricultural activities (IPCC, 2002). Adding urea to the soil leads
ical fertilizer in the form of urea, DAP, and SSP, and the remaining 50% to the emission of CO2 along with N2 O (IPCC, 2006). In the case of
of the nutrient dose in the form of vermi-Compost and FYM. Plots under rice, methane (CH4 ) is emitted from the rice fields due to the anaer-
conventional farmers’ practice were managed as per the regular practice obic decomposition of organic material under submerged conditions.
in the region and mainly received Urea and a small quantity of FYM, as The methane emission also occurs from enteric fermentation and ma-
per the availability. nure storage while rearing dairy animals, however, the current study
is specifically focusing on emission from managed soils and associated
2.2. Assessment method and data collection yield and cost benefit analysis, thus, any other sources of emission were
out of the scope. The country specific Tier 2 methodology was used to
Techno-economic assessment is a tool for making an evaluation of estimate the direct and indirect emissions in terms of carbon dioxide
the process based on its performance, emission and cost. In this study, equivalent (CO2 e) from selected cropping systems treated with specific
this tool is used to understand the technical performance, economic fea- nutrient management practices. The CO2 e emission factors related to
sibility and environmental viability of the various nutrient management the soil nutrient inputs and other sources are given in Table 1.
practices in the chosen crop production system. A stratified sampling
method was used to select a total of 40 farmers per cropping system 3. Results and discussion
per nutrient treatment. Thus, in total 160 farmers per cropping system
were selected from each cluster. Farmers were encouraged to keep a 3.1. Crop productivity
record of the quantity used and amount spent for various farm inputs
such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labor, etc. used for cultivation of In all the cropping systems, soil test based application of nutrients
the selected crop in the specified agricultural plot. The output data of (chemical fertilizers, manure alone or in combination with chemical fer-
the grain production and crop residues/bi-products were also recorded. tilizers) significantly improved the grain and biomass yield as compared
Thus, detailed crop specific input and output data were recorded for the with conventional farmers’ practice. The conventional nutrient practices
three consecutive years (i.e. from 2016–17 to 2018–19). The collected were mainly based on urea application and a small quantity of farmyard
data were assessed to get the Benefit to Cost ratio of each nutrient man- manure, as per the availability. The three years average crop yields un-
agement practice in the selected cropping system. The Intergovernmen- der different nutrient management practices are given in Fig. 4.
tal Panel on Climate Change guidelines (IPCC, 2006) and refinements When compared with conventional farmers’ practice, an average of
to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories 55% increase in the yield was observed for integrated nutrient manage-
(IPCC, 2019) were used to estimate corresponding GHG emissions and ment and organic manures while about 33% increase in yield was ob-
emission per kg of economic production (i.e. GHG intensity). served in plots treated with chemical fertilizers. The highest increase
in the yield is observed in the plots treated with organic manures
2.2.1. Cost-benefit analysis alone or in a combination of the chemical fertilizers. Similar results
The costs of all the farm inputs and total production were collected were observed by Hati et al. (2006), Bandyopadhyay et al. (2010) and
from the farmers. The farm inputs included costs associated with plough- Yan et al. (2015). The highest increase in the yield was observed in
ing, harrowing, seeding, fertilizers and pesticides inputs, labor costs for Wheat while the lowest increase was observed in chickpea. Though both
each activity, etc. The returns from sales of crop yield and bi-products the crops were taken in the rabi season, wheat is generally provided with
if any, were recorded as benefits. The benefits were adjusted with the 2-3 protective irrigations while the chickpea and sorghum are cultivated
total costs incurred for each crop and for each type of nutrient manage- on residual moisture.
ment practice to arrive at the net benefit earned or loss borne. Further, The deficit rainfall during the study period, especially for Parner and
the net benefit or loss was to be discounted. We considered taking the Bhokardan clusters, has affected the crop production in the region. How-
Reserve Bank of India’s base rate, which ranged from 6.35% to 7.10%, ever, the plots treated with organic and integrated nutrient management
as a discount rate considering it as an opportunity cost, for our study performed comparatively better than the plots where chemical fertilizers
years. We averaged the base rates to finalize one for the purpose of dis- and conventional farmers’ practices were followed. The addition of or-
counting. This rate then was used to discount the costs and benefits. ganic manures into the soil improves soil organic matter (Meena et al.,
By subtracting and factoring the discounted costs with the benefits we 2018), enhances nutrient uptake (Stewart et al., 2009), increases wa-
evaluated our discounted benefit to cost ratio (BCR), net present value ter holding capacity (Zhang et al., 2008) while, application of chemical
(NPV) and the internal rate of return (IRR). fertilizers only will have contradictory effects on soil water retention
(Gong et al., 2009). The positive effects of organic and integrated nutri-
2.2.2. GHG emission assessment ent management on crop productivity are more evident during the pe-
Key major greenhouse gases i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2 ), methane riod of dry spell and rainfall deficit years. Similar results were reported
(CH4 ) and nitrous oxide (N2 O) were considered to assess the GHG emis- by Bhattacharyya et al. (2008), Nemes (2009), and Meena et al. (2020).
sion intensity of the different nutrient management practices. The esti- Statistically, there is no significant difference in the crop yields ob-
mated concentration of each gas was converted into the global warming served in the plots treated with chemical fertilizers, organic manure,
potential (GWP) equivalent as CO2 e, using GWP equivalent factors for and integrated nutrient management. However, the fertilizer induced
a 100 year time horizon (CO2 , CH4 and N2 O have GWP of 1, 25 and greenhouse gas emission (CO2 e) per kg of grain production (i.e. GHG
298, respectively) (IPCC, 2019). The chemicals used in agriculture cause intensity) in chemical practice and farmers’ practice has a significant
emission of CO2 from their production, transportation, storage, and also difference from the organic and integrated nutrient management. This
from soil interactions (Lal, 2004). The burning of crop residues and fos- shows that the organic and integrated nutrient practices reduce GHG
sil fuels for mechanized operations also contributes to releasing green- emission without compromising crop productivity Sommer et al. (2017).
house gases from agriculture. N2 O and CH4 emissions are triggered by also reported positive results on crop yield when crops are treated with
agricultural soil management (IPCC, 2019). Direct N2 O emission from organic manure (such as compost, vermi-compost) alone or in combina-
agricultural soil occurs mainly due to the microbial nitrification and tion with chemical fertilizers rather than using only chemical fertilizers.
denitrification of nitrogen based chemical fertilizers and various types The present study underpins the result that the use of integrated nutri-
of organic manures. While, the indirect N2 O emission occurs during the ent management or organic practices helps to reduce GHG emissions
transportation of nitrogen in the agricultural systems to groundwater and sustain crop productivity.

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Table 1
Greenhouse gases emission factors for agricultural inputs (IPCC, 2006; Soni et al., 2013; IPCC, 2019).

Activity Gas Emission factor Unit

(1) Emission from production, transportation, storage and transfer

of fertilizers
Nitrogen (N) CO2 1.3 kgCO2 e kg−1 N
Phosphorus (P2 O5 ) CO2 0.2 kgCO2 e kg−1 P2 O5
Potassium (K2 O) CO2 0.15 kgCO2 e kg−1 K2 O
(2) Emission from managed agricultural soils and farm operations
Direct N2 O from N inputs (chemical and organic N2 O 4.681 kgCO2 e kg−1 N
manures)
Direct N2 O from N leaching or runoff N2 O 1.054 kgCO2 e kg−1 N
(3) Indirect N2 O from atmospheric decomposition of N volatilized
as NH3 and NOx
Chemical fertilizers N2 O 0.468 kgCO2 e kg−1 N
Organic fertilizers and manures N2 O 0.936 kgCO2 e kg−1 N
(4) Urea CO2 0.733 kgCO2 e kg−1 Urea

Table 2
Three years average benefit-cost ratios for selected crops under different nutrient management practices.

Study Crops Benefits-costs ratio (discounted) (Value or Benefit earned from each unit of cost)
Area (Season)
Organic Integrated Nutrient Management Chemical Fertilizers Farmers’ Practice

Sakri Paddy (Kharif) 1.91 2.10 1.68 1.10

Chickpea (Rabi) 1.01 1.13 0.76 0.64
Bhokardan Soybean (Kharif) 2.15 2.26 1.38 0.98
Wheat (Rabi) 1.66 1.69 1.27 0.85
Parner Green gram (Kharif) 1.23 1.21 0.88 0.71
Sorghum (Rabi) 0.86 0.81 0.57 0.44

Fig. 4. Average crop yield of selected major cropping system under different nutrient management practices (2016–17 to 2018–19).

3.2. Economic assessment benefits are more than the cost (i.e. BC ratio >1) and considered negative
when benefits are lesser than the cost (i.e. BC ratio < 1).
3.2.1. Benefit-cost ratio The majority of the crops managed with conventional nutrient man-
The benefits in terms of sales of crop yields and bi-products and total agement (farmers’ practice) showed a negative BC ratio except for paddy
costs in terms of functional farm inputs were discounted and used to which is positive but lowest of all other nutrient practices. BC ratio is
compute the Benefits-Cost (BC) ratio for all three years. The average positive for Paddy, Soybean and Wheat crops (1.68, 1.38, 1.27, respec-
values are presented in Table 2. The BC ratio is termed as positive when tively) while it is negative for Chickpea, Green gram and Sorghum crops

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Fig. 5. Internal Rate of Return for selected crops under different nutrient management practices.

(0.76, 0.86, 0.57, respectively) under chemical nutrient practices. The In all the cropping systems except for the Paddy crop at Sakri, the
BC ratios of crops treated with chemical fertilizers are significantly lower IRR for farmers’ practice is negative while organic and integrated nutri-
than those observed under organic and integrated nutrient management. ent management show positive IRR in all crops except for Sorghum in
Organic and integrated nutrient management showed a positive BC ra- Parner. The three years average IRR for soybean was positive in all the
tio in all the crops except for the Sorghum crop in the Parner cluster. nutrient management practices while it was negative in the conventional
In Parner cluster Sorghum crop is generally cultivated in rabi season on farmers’ practice. In the case of Paddy, Chickpea, Wheat, and Soybean
residual soil moisture without making any provisions for crop irrigation. cropping systems the integrated nutrient management has given better
During the study period, the region has experienced consecutive rainfall returns as compared to the organic, chemical and conventional nutri-
deficits which might result in the negative BC ratio of the crop in all of ent management practices. Though the Parner cluster observed a deficit
the 4 nutrient management practices considered for evaluation. How- rainfall during the study period, crops grown using organic manures
ever, plots treated with organic and integrated nutrient management gave promising results. This confirms the finding of Bhattacharyya et al.
reported BC ratios slightly lower than one (0.86 and 0.81, respectively) (2008) and Nemes (2009) that crops treated with organic manure alone
while plots treated with chemical fertilizers and conventional practice or in combination with mineral fertilizers give better returns in cases
reported BC ratios far below one (0.57 and 0.44, respectively). Thus, of bio-physical stresses like drought, longer dry spell and deficit rain-
organic manures alone or in combination with chemical fertilizers help fall. Thus, the application of organic manures helps in mitigating losses
to reduce the losses in adverse conditions. caused by bio-physical stress to a certain extent.
This indicates that during the study period, farmers who followed Due to consecutive deficit rainfall years in the Parner cluster, all the
organic and integrated nutrient management practices were in a better cultivated crops are largely affected. Green gram crop in the kharif sea-
position in terms of yield and net benefits than the farmers using chem- son showed negative IRR under chemical fertilizers and conventional
ical fertilizers and conventional nutrient practices. Thus, replacing the nutrient treatments while Sorghum crop showed negative IRR under all
chemical fertilizers fully or partially with organic manures prepared by the nutrient practices. However, in the case of Sorghum, the losses are
farmers increases the profitability by lowering the cost of cultivation and reduced or minimal in the plots treated with organic manures (-5.18%)
losses in adverse climatic conditions (Nemes, 2009, Sgroi et al., 2015). followed by integrated nutrient management (-6.89%) than the chemi-
The use of organic manures alone or in combination with some min- cal fertilizers (-17.65%) and conventional practices (-25.36%). This indi-
eral fertilizers will provide many other tangible and intangible benefits cates that crops managed with organic and integrated nutrient practices
like reduced soil erosion (Jagadamma et al., 2009), improved biodiver- thrive better than those managed with chemical practices alone.
sity conservation (Tscharntke et al., 2021), reduction in soil and water
pollution (Doran and Zeiss, 2000) and many other environmental ben-
efits which in long term will deliver better economic returns from the 3.3. GHG mitigation potential though nutrient management
agricultural ecosystem.
Fig. 6 shows the reduction in fertilizer induced emission of green-
house gases per kg of food grain production from different nutrient man-
3.2.2. Internal rate of return agement practices compared with farmers’ practices. It was observed
Fig. 5 reflects the internal rate of return earned through each nutri- that adjusting the dose of chemical fertilizer as per the soil nutrient
ent management practice. An Internal rate of return (IRR) is the rate at status and crop requirement reduces the GHG emission from the soil
which the investments done in an activity, after discounting the cash by about 34.66% than usual farmers’ practice. In the case of chemical
flows, have earned throughout the project period. It means if invest- fertilizers, the lowest reduction in the GHG emission was observed in
ment in a particular nutrient management practice has given a positive Wheat (8.97%) while the highest reduction was observed in Chickpea
internal rate of return it indicates a viable option to invest in the future. (49.51%).

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

Fig. 6. Reduction in emission of greenhouse gases per kg of food grain production (%) from different nutrient management practices compared with farmers’ practice.

The fertilizer induced emission from agricultural soils reduces by 4. Conclusions

about 52.21% when the crops were treated with integrated nutrient
management as compared with usual farmers’ nutrient management; The use of organic manures alone or in combination with chemical
while in the case of organic manures, it facilitated the reduction of the fertilizers is a feasible strategy as it reduces GHG emissions and works
GHG emission by 60.17%. This shows that the crops managed with or- as an alternate option to reduce the expenditure on chemical fertilizers
ganic and integrated nutrient practices have a lower GHG intensity than without compromising the crop yield. However, considering the limita-
the plots managed with chemical fertilizer inputs. tions of the availability of organic manures for organic cultivation for
The paddy crop showed less reduction potential of fertilizer induced farmers, integrated nutrient management is an economically feasible
GHG emissions (Fig. 6), this might be because farmers followed the con- and environmentally viable practice of crop nutrient management.
ventional water regimes during the crop cultivation. This anaerobic en- The use of organic or integrated nutrient management could help
vironment leads to the emission of CH4 and N2 O in all of the nutrient to address the issues of increasing cost of production, degrading soil
and land management practices (Ahmad, 2009). Thus, to reduce the and water resources, and emission greenhouse gases from agricultural
GHG emissions from paddy cultivation water management is the key soils but the information is not conveyed well to the farming community
along with nutrient management (Yao et al., 2017 Sinha et al., 2020;). neither the efforts to follow organic practices are fairly incentivized in
The newer technologies like System of Rice Intensification (Jain et al., government policies. Farmers tend to use chemical fertilizers as those
2014), dry seeding of rice (Kumar and Ladha, 2011) or cultivation of are subsidized and readily available. Similarly, it is necessary to encour-
rice over raised bed system (Pathak et al., 2011) could help to reduce age farmers to produce organic manures like compost, vermi-compost
the emissions. by using locally available agricultural and dairy waste and support their
Agricultural soils managed with fertilizers, both chemical and or- actions with appropriate incentives and policies.
ganic, are one of the major greenhouse gas emission sources from
crop production systems (Ghahderijani et al., 2013 Shen et al., 2018; Declaration of Competing Interest
Pokhrel and Soni, 2019;). Post green revolution, the use of chemical
fertilizers has increased significantly (Singh and Benbi, 2016) and the The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
majority of them are nitrogen based fertilizers leading to the emission interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
of N2 O and other GHG gasses. However, the study showed that opti- the work reported in this paper.
mum and systematic application of fertilizers or replacing the chemi-
cal fertilizers partially or fully with organic manures reduces the GHG
emission without compromising on the yield and increases the prof- Acknowledgment
itability by reducing the cost of cultivation. Other studies on per-
formance assessment of organic and integrated nutrient management This paper was presented in a virtual conference titled “Environmen-
Bhattacharyya et al. (2008), Pathak et al. (2011), Ren et al. (2017) also tal Challenges and Agricultural Sustainability in Asia: Interlinkages and
showed similar results. Future Implications,” organized by Asian Development Bank Institute

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M. Gholkar, P. Thombare, U. Koli et al. Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100492

on 8-10 December 2021. The views, information, or opinions expressed Kumar, V., Ladha, J.K., 2011. Direct seeding of rice: recent developments and future re-
in the paper are those of the authors, and the usual disclaimer applies. search needs. Adv. Agron. 111, 297–413. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-387689-8.00001-1.
Lal, R., 2001. Soil degradation by erosion. Land Degrad. Dev. 12 (6), 519–539.
This research work was supported by the project “Soil protection and doi:10.1002/ldr.472.
rehabilitation of degraded soil for food security in India (ProSoil)” im- Lal, R., 2003. Soil erosion and the global carbon budget. Environ. Int. 29 (4), 437–450.
plemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit doi:10.1016/S0160-4120(02)00192-7.
Lal, R., 2004. Carbon emission from farm operations. Environ. Int. 30 (7), 981–990.
(GIZ) GmbH on behalf of German Federal Ministry for Economic Coop- doi:10.1016/j.envint.2004.03.005.
eration and Development (BMZ) in partnership with National Bank for Lu, C., Tian, H., 2017. Global nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer use for agriculture pro-
Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The authors are thank- duction in the past half century: shifted hot spots and nutrient imbalance. Earth Syst.
Sci. Data 9, 181–192. doi:10.5194/essd-9-181-2017.
ful to ProSoil and WOTR for providing the required support for the field
Mandal, A., Sarkar, B., Mandal, S., Vithanage, M., Patra, A.K., Manna, M.C.,
activities in the research work. The authors are also thankful to the farm- Narasimha, M., Prasad, V., 2020. Impact of agrochemicals on soil health. In: Agro-
ers of the study area for their valuable time in keeping data records and chemicals Detection, Treatment and Remediation. Butterworth-Heinemann, pp. 161–
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answering the questions patiently and accurately.
Meena, R.S., Vijayakumar, V., Yadav, G.S., Mitran, T., 2018. Response and interaction of
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