grain of truth

Because the environmental and sustainability benets of organic fertilizer in rice production are small or nonexistent, use of organics should be governed by protability. But the nutrient content of organic fertilizer is BY ACHIM DOBERMANN & DAVID DAWE typically low and much more variable than that of inorganic fertilizer, necessitating large quantities. Thus, if organic fertilizer needs to be transported over a long distance, costs can be prohibitively high. Further, given organic fertilizers variable nutrient content, farmers often have trouble judging how much to apply. With inorganic fertilizer, farmers ising fertilizer prices and are relatively sure of the nutrient misperceptions about quantities and can more easily environmental degradation in adjust nutrient rates and proportions to match site-specic needs. intensive agriculture have stimulated When manure or other organic claims that so-called low-input materials are readily available, rice technologies relying on organic farmers should apply them as part of nutrient sources may provide a more their overall management strategy. sustainable means of producing food For example, applying organics in crops and increasing farmers income. a primitive production system that However, the sole use of organic does not use mineral fertilizers will technologies would likely perpetuate probably increase prots and food food insecurity and poverty in production. But, Asia because they are typically an Cereal production in Asia will depend primarily most Asian rice expensive source of farmers already on mineral nutrients to meet future demand essential nutrients use mineral and confer few if any fertilizer, so higher benets in terms of sustainability prots are likely only if organics are nutrients to the cropping system as a and the environment. used to supplementnot replace whole; rather, they transfer nutrients The effects of organic matter within the system. In contrast, mineral conventional inorganic fertilizers. applications on soil quality and crop fertilizers add nutrients to the system. Many commercially produced yields become clear only after several In most low-input systems that rely organic fertilizers that are widely years of continuous applications. on organic sources, the nutrient promoted and even subsidized in Numerous long-term experiments content and quantity of available rice-growing countries of Asia do not conducted in a wide range of riceorganic fertilizers are insufcient to provide proven protable yield gains. based cropping systems have achieve high yields for most crops. Although high fertilizer prices have demonstrated that the continuous use Irrigated rice, with its ooded added additional pressure to farmers of organic amendments, at affordable elds, is the only major food crop that and policymakers alike, governments rates, does not lead to signicant yield can achieve stable yields with up to should limit subsidies and invest advantages compared with systems three harvests annually, without the instead in technologies that, coupled that are managed with judicious and need for rotation, for decades. Unique with appropriate supporting policies, balanced use of mineral fertilizers. features of carbon and nitrogen enable farmers to improve yields and Organic practices can result in cycling in submerged soil mean that fertilizer efciency in their elds. nutrient imbalances (both excesses soil organic matter actually tends to and deciencies). Short-term yield accumulate in such systems, even if Dr. Dobermann is deputy director reductions are common and organic no manure is applied or much of the agricultural systems appear to require rice straw is removed from the eld. general for research at IRRI. Dr. both premium prices and government In such systems, applying organic Dawe is a senior economist at the subsidies to remain economically matter in addition to crop residues United Nations Food and Agriculture viable on a large scale. They also has relatively less benet for either Organization. The views expressed require large amounts of organic crop productivity or the sustainability do not necessarily represent ofcial nitrogen (N) sources or diversion of of the overall cropping system. positions of the authors organizations. land to accommodate rotations with leguminous crops (green manures) that can capture atmospheric nitrogen. Diverting land to grow nonfood or low-yielding leguminous crops reduces food production. This may be feasible in some industrialized countries, but, in developing countries with high population densities and limited agricultural land, it can threaten national food security and poverty reduction by leading to higher food prices. Moreover, recent research suggests that there are no proven environmental benets in organic systems, such as less N leaching or lower gaseous-N losses, when the environmental impact is expressed on a per ton food-produced basis. In all cropping systems, nutrients are constantly removed in the form of crops harvested. If these nutrients are not returned, the system cannot be sustainable without further input from outside. Organically managed systems are no exception to this rule. Organic fertilizers produced within the boundaries of a farm do not add

Can organic agriculture feed Asia?

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Rice Today October-December 2008