Opportunity and shift of nitrogen use in China

It is never an easy task for China to feed 1.4 billion people with only 7% of the world’s arable land. With nearly 30% of the world’s nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied, China achieves high crop yields while facing N pollution resulting from excessive N input. Here, we calculate the farmland N budget on the national and regional scales. The N use efficiency (NUE) in China increased by 28.0% during 2005–2018. This improvement is due to the reduction in fertilization and the improvement of crop management. The fragmented farmland is changing to large-scale farmland with the increase in cultivated land area per rural population and the development of agricultural mechanization. This opportunity brings more possibilities for precision farmland management, thus further improving NUE. The goal of an NUE of 0.6 may be achieved in the 2040s based on the current development trend. This striking N use shift in China has important implications for other developing countries.