Newton-Bhabha Virtual Centre on Nitrogen Efficiency of Whole-cropping Systems for improved performance and resilience in agriculture (NEWS India-UK)

The need to optimize agricultural nitrogen (N) use is fast emerging as a key global challenge where international cooperation can play a transformational role. The NEWS India-UK Virtual Joint Centre builds on existing global leadership by UK and Indian N researchers to develop and test innovative approaches to optimize N management that help meeting food security goals while reducing multiple environmental threats. The NEWS India-UK reflects the need to apply the full array of N management opportunities through bi-lateral cooperation between India and UK. This includes improving both crop biological nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), using improved genetic material to help biochemical processes be more efficient and agronomic NUE, which considers the amount of N reaching harvested products compared with N inputs, which can be improved by better field and fertilizer management practices. "NEWS" stands for Nitrogen Efficiency of Whole cropping Systems, reflecting the need for both these strategies if the full benefits are to be achieved. However, NEWS India-UK also takes two important further steps. Firstly, it applies the outcomes of biological and agronomic NUE advances at the farm scale. Critical here is the need to recycle all available N sources (such as manures, crop residues, atmospheric inputs and biological nitrogen fixation) and to examine the barriers that limit adoption of available methods at the farm scale. Secondly, it scales up the outcomes to the national scale. By focusing on establishing a full agricultural nitrogen budget for India, the approach will point to the major opportunities for improvement. This will integrate the plant and agronomic NUE strategies, farm scale options and national strategies (including from N policies, spatial optimization etc) that could be used to improve N management at a national level, giving clear estimates of the overall benefits. This will enable forward looks or 'scenarios' that explore 'what if' situations of how N could be managed better in the future and how it could contribute to food and energy security, improve agricultural resilience to climate change and reduce effects of water, air and soil pollution. Virtual Centre deliberately combines scientific disciplines to cross-fertilize ideas and develop more joined-up solutions. Analysis of natural genetic variation, together with the opportunity that can be provided by Genetic Modification (GM) techniques, will support process studies on improving plant level NUE. At the field scale, the project will quantify full nitrogen budgets, measure all major N emissions to the air and water and demonstrate how NUE improvements translate into reduced N pollution and greenhouse gas emission. The field scale will also bring together the options to see how a combination of genetic and agronomic improvements can maximize net benefits of better nitrogen management for higher productivity and climate resilience. The experimental datasets will then be applied, with support of case studies, to assess the farm scale, with mathematical models used to bring information together and to consider simple tools that can support small-holder farmers for better decision making. Finally, the national-scale work is also addressed by using models, where available statistical information for Indian agriculture is brought together with the expert understanding to develop country-level estimates and the forward look.
The work of the NEWS India-UK virtual centre is organized around 5 science components: C1: Plant strategies, genetics and improving plant NUE; C2: Agronomic strategies to improving field-level NUE; C3: Farm scale nitrogen strategies, maximizing the value of all N sources; C4: National scale nitrogen strategies and scientific synthesis; and finally, C5: Capacity Building, Training and Dissemination, which links across the Virtual Centre to strengthen the research integration and build the basis for durable India-UK cooperation.

As fertilizer use has grown in India, NUE of rice has decreased from ~22% in the 1960s to only 8% in 20083,17. Higher N inputs have increased the fraction lost as pollution, an effect compounded by N fertilizer subsidies, encouraging imbalanced N fertilizer application compared with other nutrients.
These points are illustrative of the N challenge facing Indian agriculture, which will be addressed by NEWS India-UK. Overall, more than 80% of fertilizer N in India is lost to the environment, with the situation being even worse when it comes to recycling of N from animal manure. This is typically burnt as fuel (dung cakes), rather than being recycled to agricultural soils, where it could provide N, organic matter and other nutrients to improve soil quality and NUE.
NEWS India-UK is expected to have a significant impact on these issues, improving resource use efficiency and thereby contributing to improved food security and poverty alleviation, while at the same time improving quality of life through a cleaner environment. For example improving rice NUE is likely to win significant dividends in terms of increased resilience to climate change.
One of the key strengths of NEWS India-UK is its adoption of a systems approach where NUE is addressed at a range of scales, from the plant, through the field, farm and national scales. This will allow the Centre to show what could be achieved by different NUE improvement strategies.
On the genetic side, both the exploitation of natural variation and GM offer opportunities to improve plant NUE. By including both approaches, the project will contribute evidence on the potential benefits of GM for rice in India. It should be noted that this will be the first time that this GM NUE improved rice has been tested in India (permissions are already in place for laboratory testing, with further permissions for field testing to be processed during the first year of the Centre).
On the agronomic side, a major impact of the Centre will be experimental demonstration of the extent to which improving NUE simultaneously decreases different components of N losses. This is important, as different agronomic strategies will not affect all N pollution in the same way. Strategies may be identified, specifically aimed at reducing NH3 emissions (with additional benefits due to decreased particulate matter in the atmosphere and N deposition to nature), at reducing NO3- lost to groundwater (with a focus on better drinking water and less coastal pollution) or at reducing denitrification (reducing impacts on climate from N2O emissions, while saving energy costs associated with N fertilizer manufacture by reducing N2 emissions). By considering all of these sources, the Centre will be able to provide guidance to support stakeholders on optimizing NUE improvement strategies for a 'win-win-win' situation for the environment, food production and energy saving, simultaneously increasing resilience to climate change risks.
The national upscaling of NEWS India-UK is also expected to have a significant impact. This will provide input to improve Indian emissions reporting of N2O (e.g. to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) and provide evidence to support development of wider N strategies, informing UNEPs emerging 'International Nitrogen Management System' (INMS).