Nutrient Flow Analysis of Agricultural Production

Agricultural production is crucial for maintaining the normal functioning of human society and promoting environmental sustainability. Agricultural production encompasses various components. In this chapter, we categorize agricultural production system into crop production system and animal production system. Crop production system is composed of fertilizer production and crop cultivation. Animal production system is composed of crop feed cultivation, breeding, and manure management. In recent years, there has been a growing concern about the environmental impacts of material flows in agricultural production. The material flows dominated by carbon, N, and PPhosphorus have been found to have the most significant impacts on the environment, regardless of whether they are in crop production system or in livestock production system. We aim to illustrate the environmental impacts of material flows (such as N flows and P flows) in agricultural production with some examples. We will apply life cycle assessment (LCA) method to demonstrate the nutrient flows in agricultural production.