Economic Costs of Nitrogen Management in Agriculture

Nitrogen (N) management is one of the measures of Annex IX of the revised Gothenburg Protocol and described in detail in the Guidance Document (Bittman et al., Options for ammonia mitigation: guidance from the UNECE task force on reactive nitrogen. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh, 2014). The measures of Annex IX aim at the abatement of ammonia (NH3) emissions from agricultural sources. This chapter reviews literature dealing with the economic costs of N management, aimed at decreasing the N surplus and increasing N use efficiency (NUE) at farm level. Nitrogen balances are important tools for N management; they are prerequisites for monitoring, reporting and verification. They have been implemented in practice in Denmark and The Netherlands, and are used in many other countries as research tool. The economic costs of making N balances at farm level range between 200 and 500 € per farm per year. Possible additional costs relate to comparing and discussing these balances with other farmers. Also governments make costs for verification and control, estimated at 50–500 € per farm per year