This project was completed in 2017. The study was led by Junko Shindo and T. Jayaraman with the participation of Kamal Murari, Biplab Sarkar, and Sanjukta Chakraborty.

A publication titled “Village Scale Nitrogen Balance Study: A Case Study of Ananthavaram Village” will be brought out as a part of this study.

There is a further scope to extend this project. This project attempted to understand and quantify the nitrogen balance and nitrogen outflow to the environment at the micro level, specifically at the level of the village. The project also re-examines the sources of secondary data for estimating nitrogen balance and nitrogen outflow at the district and State levels.

Among the most striking features of the agricultural economy of India since Independence is the dramatic increase in agricultural production as a whole, and cereal production in particular.

Among the factors associated with this increase are the expansion of irrigation and the increased application of bio-chemical inputs, particularly chemical fertilizers. It is noteworthy that 16 percent of world nitrogen fertilizer use takes place in India, the largest consumption in the world after China.

Although chemical fertilizer was essential for India’s Green Revolution, it has the potential to cause pollution in groundwater and river water in agricultural areas. According to our estimation of nitrogen balance in farmland in India, potential nitrogen load to the environment from farmland has increased rapidly after the 1980s, especially in the States in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Scientific papers published to evaluate groundwater quality for domestic uses show nitrogen concentrations exceeding drinking water standards in many sites.

Further development of Indian agriculture cannot neglect the issue of the optimum use of nitrogen as part of a more general concern for environmental sustainability. The term “optimum use” is particularly important, given the importance of agriculture for food security in general and for the income and livelihoods of farmers, especially poor and marginal farmers.