Jan 30, 2024 at 00:11
The nitrogen surplus in agriculture will have risen to 312 million kilos in 2022, which is 6.5 percent more than the previous year. The surplus causes acidification of the soil and is harmful to surface water.
The main cause of the increase is that the summer of 2022 was very dry. As a result, grass absorbed less nitrogen, causing more of it to end up in the air and soil.
The 312 million kilos is the largest surplus since 2018, when there was also a dry summer. The surplus of nitrogen has been fluctuating around 300 million kilos for about fifteen years.
Nitrogen enters agriculture through livestock feed and fertilizer, among other things. It then partly ends up in agricultural products, but is also emitted by livestock through exhalation and manure.
These emissions are partly absorbed by plants and grass, for example, while part of the manure is reused. But another part ends up on the ground, in the air or in surface water. There it causes acidification of the soil and affects surface water. This is harmful to biodiversity.
It has also been hindering housing construction for a few years now. In 2019, the judge decided that the Dutch nitrogen policy was flawed and needed to be improved to protect nature reserves.
This meant that a number of housing projects came to a temporary standstill, because these projects also release nitrogen, for example, due to construction traffic. Furthermore, the ruling made several thousand permits that had already been granted to farms illegal.
Image: ANP
Read more about:
EconomyNitrogen
2024-01-29 23:11:35
#Nitrogen #surplus #increase #due #dry #summer #Economy
