How to Close Nutrient Cycles in Agriculture? Emission reduction potential of different technologies on an EU scale

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural intensification is essential to feed the growing global population with limited resources. However, agriculture contributes significantly to environmental issues, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and eutrophication. Optimizing nutrient use is key to improving agricultural productivity while mitigating environmental harm. This study examines the potential of innovative mitigation technologies at the EU level using the economic model CAPRI and the emission and nutrient flow model MITTERA-Europe. We simulate the stepwise adoption of these technologies to evaluate their environmental impacts, investigating each technology independently while keeping others at current levels. All scenarios are compared to a 2030 model baseline, with manure treatment technologies modelled exclusively in MITTERA-Europe. Our findings show that small-scale anaerobic digestion (pocket digesters) of cattle and pig manure offers the greatest potential to reduce GHG emissions in the EU. The N-Sensor, a technology for assessing crop nitrogen status, has the most significant impact on mineral fertilizer use, reducing it by 1% to 3% compared to the baseline. The NIR-Sensor, which improves manure use efficiency, has the highest direct impact on manure management. Among the technologies, the N-Sensor demonstrates the highest potential for reducing nitrogen surplus, achieving up to a 2.6% reduction in the EU.

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