The Innovation Team of Non-point Source Pollution Control, led by Wang Ligang from the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) has recently revealed the environmental and socioeconomic benefits of optimized fertilization for greenhouse vegetables. By using nitrogen footprint and cost-benefit analysis methods, the team determined the environmental and economic benefits of optimized fertilization for greenhouse vegetables and conducted empirical analysis in Beijing as an example, effectively demonstrating that optimized fertilization not only reduces the nitrogen footprint in the production process of greenhouse vegetables but also enhances socioeconomic benefits. The relevant findings have been published under the title "The environmental and socioeconomic benefits of optimized fertilization for greenhouse vegetables" in the international journal "Science of the Total Environment".

The research results show that the nitrogen footprints of tomatoes, bok choy, lettuce, and cabbage in optimized fertilization have been reduced by 61 percent, 29 percent, 46 percent, and 36 percent respectively. By implementing optimized fertilization for greenhouse vegetables in Beijing, fertilizer input costs can be reduced by $1-5 million, and the net economic benefits can increase by $2-19 million. Therefore, optimized fertilization is an economically effective measure that contributes to the sustainable development of greenhouse vegetable production.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Beijing Agricultural Research System Innovation Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Science Fund, the Postdoctoral International Exchange Program, and the China Scholarship Council.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168252