ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on economic implications and policy with respect to Nitrogen (N) in agriculture. Many Chinese farmers likely met their own economically optimal N rate (EONR) under low fertilizer and high crop prices, but were tempted to exceed N applications into Stage III because the fertilizer/crop price ratio was so much in favor of using more fertilizer. This has led to large-scale reactive N (Nr) pollution. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), farmers may assess their risk and fail to reach the EONR that confronts them because of poor logistics or weather/timing difficulties. Important issues are involved when there are N deficiencies and many alternative policy instruments are possible for dealing with these deficits. In Europe, there is more utilization of policy instruments to control excess Nr, which includes regulatory instruments, economic instruments, and communications instruments. The policy actions that might be taken tend to involve regulations, voluntary approaches, or market-based approaches.
