What is nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)?
All plants need nitrogen to grow and thrive, and most important crops require the addition of large amounts of nitrogen–whether in the form of synthetic fertilizer, manure, or plant material–to be highly productive. Crops do not assimilate all of the nitrogen that is added to the soil, but some crops, varieties of crops, and agricultural practices use nitrogen more efficiently than others. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) refers to how well an agricultural system uses the nitrogen available to it. Two common ways of considering NUE are the amount of added nitrogen needed to produce a given amount of a crop, and the fraction of potentially harmful applied nitrogen that is lost from the farm.
