--- title: Not all crops carry the same nitrogen weight description: Explore a groundbreaking study on nitrogen fertilizer use across 156 crops from 1980 to 2022, revealing key insights for sustainable agriculture and emissions reduction. image: https://proba.earth/hubfs/Blog%20featured%20image%20(23).png --- [![Proba. In your supply chain, we make the voluntary carbon market work for you.](https://proba.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/positive.png?width=185&height=53&name=positive.png "Proba. 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Search # Not all crops carry the same nitrogen weight 8 Sep 2026 ![Picture of Proba](https://proba.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/Subheading%20(7).png?width=40&name=Subheading%20(7).png) [Proba](https://proba.earth/probas-blog/author/proba) ![](https://proba.earth/hubfs/Blog%20featured%20image%20(23).png) A new study in Environmental Research Letters (Ray, Sapkota and Dobermann, 2026) reconstructs crop-specific fertilizer application rates across 156 crops from 1980 to 2022. It is the first long-term dataset of its kind, built from roughly 800,000 reported data points, and there is a lot in it worth reading. The part we found most interesting is what it shows about nitrogen use across different crops. **Nitrogen is a carbon story too** Nitrogen rates matter for more than agronomy and input cost. A large share of the nitrogen applied to a field doesn’t end up in the crop, and part of what is lost leaves as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas roughly 270 times more potent than CO2 over a hundred years, synthetic nitrogen becomes one of the single largest emission sources in most crop footprints. **The study’s findings** At the intensive end, tea receives around 242 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year, with cotton, vegetables and sugar following closely behind. Maize sits well up the scale, at roughly 147 to 173 kg N per hectare depending on the country. At the other end, nitrogen-fixing legumes such as soybean and dry beans need almost none, around 15 to 16 kg per hectare, because they fix their own nitrogen from the air. ![](https://proba.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/undefined-4.png?width=2048&height=1557&name=undefined-4.png) \[Figure 1a from Ray et al, 2026: crop-specific nitrogen consumption share and average application rates\] Maize and wheat each account for about a fifth of all nitrogen applied to crops worldwide, not because they are the most intensive per hectare, but because they cover so much ground. A crop can be a heavy user in total tonnage while sitting mid-pack per hectare, or intensive per hectare while barely registering in global totals. This is why a nitrogen number only means something at the level of the specific crop and field. Averaged across a whole farm or a whole region, the figure hides the crops where the emissions and the cost actually sit. The crop breakdown is only one part of the study. It also tracks how application rates have shifted and begun to converge over four decades. It shows recent growth in nitrogen use being driven more by cropland expansion than by higher rates per hectare. A decline in nitrogen and phosphorus across East Asia and Western Europe as efficiency and policy improved. The authors are also candid about their main limitation, the gaps and uncertainty in self-reported farmer data, which is a useful reminder of how much any nitrogen figure depends on the quality of measurement underneath it. The full study is open access and worth the read. If you are building a Scope 3 inventory for an agri-food supply chain, the nitrogen line is usually where the uncertainty is largest and the reduction potential is highest. Get in touch to see how we quantify and certify fertilizer-related GHG reductions at scale which you can confidently report and claim. A new study in Environmental Research Letters (Ray, Sapkota and Dobermann, 2026) reconstructs crop-specific fertilizer application rates across 156 crops from 1980 to 2022. It is the first long-term dataset of its kind, built from roughly 800,000 reported data points, and there is a lot in it worth reading. The part we found most interesting is what it shows about nitrogen use across different crops. **Nitrogen is a carbon story too** Nitrogen rates matter for more than agronomy and input cost. A large share of the nitrogen applied to a field doesn’t end up in the crop, and part of what is lost leaves as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas roughly 270 times more potent than CO2 over a hundred years, synthetic nitrogen becomes one of the single largest emission sources in most crop footprints. **The study’s findings** At the intensive end, tea receives around 242 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year, with cotton, vegetables and sugar following closely behind. Maize sits well up the scale, at roughly 147 to 173 kg N per hectare depending on the country. At the other end, nitrogen-fixing legumes such as soybean and dry beans need almost none, around 15 to 16 kg per hectare, because they fix their own nitrogen from the air. ![](https://proba.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/undefined-3.png?width=2048&height=1557&name=undefined-3.png) *\[Figure 1a from Ray et al, 2026: crop-specific nitrogen consumption share and average application rates\]* Maize and wheat each account for about a fifth of all nitrogen applied to crops worldwide, not because they are the most intensive per hectare, but because they cover so much ground. A crop can be a heavy user in total tonnage while sitting mid-pack per hectare, or intensive per hectare while barely registering in global totals. This is why a nitrogen number only means something at the level of the specific crop and field. Averaged across a whole farm or a whole region, the figure hides the crops where the emissions and the cost actually sit. The crop breakdown is only one part of the study. It also tracks how application rates have shifted and begun to converge over four decades. It shows recent growth in nitrogen use being driven more by cropland expansion than by higher rates per hectare. A decline in nitrogen and phosphorus across East Asia and Western Europe as efficiency and policy improved. The authors are also candid about their main limitation, the gaps and uncertainty in self-reported farmer data, which is a useful reminder of how much any nitrogen figure depends on the quality of measurement underneath it. The full study is open access and worth the read. If you are building a Scope 3 inventory for an agri-food supply chain, the nitrogen line is usually where the uncertainty is largest and the reduction potential is highest. Get in touch to see how we quantify and certify fertilizer-related GHG reductions at scale which you can confidently report and claim. ### Share: [Share on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://proba.earth/probas-blog/not-all-crops-carry-the-same-nitrogen-weight&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook) [Share on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://proba.earth/probas-blog/not-all-crops-carry-the-same-nitrogen-weight&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin) [Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https://proba.earth/probas-blog/not-all-crops-carry-the-same-nitrogen-weight&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&url=https://proba.earth/probas-blog/not-all-crops-carry-the-same-nitrogen-weight&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Not%20all%20crops%20carry%20the%20same%20nitrogen%20weight) [Fertilizers](https://proba.earth/probas-blog/tag/fertilizers), [crops](https://proba.earth/probas-blog/tag/crops) ## Proba Food companies are asking for verified Scope 3 reductions. It starts with fertilizer. [hello@proba.earth](mailto:hello@proba.earth) [Follow me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/proba-earth/) ## Related posts Search [Walther Farms: Better numbers, better potatoes](https://proba.earth/probas-blog/walther-farms-better-numbers-better-potatoes) [Landor: Lowering the carbon footprint of fertilizer](https://proba.earth/probas-blog/landor-lowering-the-carbon-footprint-of-fertilizer) Search ![Subheading (5)](https://proba.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/Subheading%20(5).png?width=317&name=Subheading%20(5).png "Subheading (5)") [Laan van Kronenburg 14, 1183 AS Amstelveen](https://maps.app.goo.gl/aKif8v1k5m9h2zA37)   Food companies are asking for certified Scope 3 reductions. It starts with fertilizer. 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