Climate Change Mitigation - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 275

Fig. 13.1 Nitrifi cation inhibitors (e.g., dicyandiamide) reduce the activity of nitrifying bacteria

Table 13.1 Summary of corn yield responses from
nitrifi cation inhibitors added to ammoniacal fertilizers
applied at varying times in several regions of the USA
(Nelson and Huber 2001 )

can be achieved by using various
coatings, chemical modifi cations, and
changing the size of fertilizer granules.
For example, increasing the size of urea
granules from conventional 0.01 to 1 g
decreased nitrifi cation rates and was
shown to be more effective than adding
the nitrifi cation inhibitor DCD (Skiba
et al. 1997 ).
• A combination of increasing the size of
pellet to 1 g and adding DCD led to very
slow nitrifi cation rates, with 30 % of the
original N application still present
8 weeks after fertilizer application
(Goose and Johnson 1993 ).
• Global warming potential (GWP) due to
N 2 O reduced from 231 kg CO 2 e ha −1 on
urea application to 200 kg CO 2 e ha −1
under urea and SBT fl uroate treatment
under conventional tillage, whereas
under zero-tillage it was reduced from
260 kg CO 2 e ha −1 with urea alone to
210 kg CO 2 e ha −1 with SBT fl uroate
(Bhatia et al. 2010 ). These reductions in
global warming potential were 13.5 %
and 19.5 % due to SBT fl uroate com-
pared to urea alone under conventional
and zero-tillage, respectively.
(iv) Nitrogen management technology :
Fertilizer nitrogen management practices
signifi cantly infl uence the emissions of

% of studies
with yield
increase

Time of
application

% yield
increase Region

Southeast
(GA, MD,
NC, SC, TN)

Autumn 17 14

Spring 43 15

Eastern Corn
Belt (IL, IN,
OH, KY)

Autumn 69 9

Spring 51 3

Spring (no-till) 82 13

Northern Corn
Belt (MI, MN,
WI) Not
irrigated

Autumn 25 5

Spring 17 12

Western Corn
Belt (KS, MN,
NE) irrigated
coarse-textured
soils

Spring 52 30

Western Corn
Belt (KS, NE)
Medium- and
fi ne-textured
soils

Spring 10 5

nitrous oxide emissions. The various
parameters of this technology are described
below:
• The use of slow-release fertilizers offers
a cost-effective mitigation option. Slow
release of urea- and NH 4 -based fertilizers