Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition.

SDG 2 - among other things - aims to ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. Sustainable and resilient food production systems are a key factor in achieving this goal. A lack of nitrogen or phosphorous may lead to degradation in soil fertility, while an excess may cause surface and groundwater (including drinking water) pollution and eutrophication. Manure and fertiliser introduce nitrogen and phosphorous to the soil while harvesting of crops, removal of residues and runoff remove nitrogen and phosphorous from the soil.

The EU Member States can and have established Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) to meet requirements under the Water Framework Directive and Nitrates Directive for nutrient and nitrate standards. These plans are aimed to help farmers, water managers and other responsible parties to improve their nutrient management. Furthermore, Rural Development Programmes 2014-2020 finance actions to better address and manage nutrient uses in agriculture, many of which make reference to NMPs. The adoption of NMPs has been instrumental in nitrogen reductions since the mid-1980s.  

Nutrient balance surpluses are also monitored for the purposes of the Water Framework Directive and nitrogen balance for the Nitrates Directive.

The indicator measures the potential surplus or deficit of nitrogen and phosphorous in agricultural soils. A lack of nitrogen or phosphorous may lead to degradation in soil fertility, while an excess may cause surface and groundwater (including drinking water) pollution and eutrophication. Ideally, the input/output of nutrition to the soil should be balanced.

Nutrient inputs consist of the amount of nitrogen/phosphorus applied via mineral fertilizers and animal manure as well as nitrogen fixation by legumes, deposition from the air, and some other minor sources. Nitrogen/phosphorus output is contained in the harvested crops, or grass and crops eaten by livestock (escape of nitrogen to the atmosphere, e.g. as N₂O, is not taken into account for calculation of the indicator).

The land types included in Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) are arable land, permanent crops and permanent grassland.

kg per hectare UAA

Calendar year

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS)

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

Indicator is updated every two years with annual data requested by gentlemen´s agreement.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within 3 years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland

< 75% EU MS

Geographical comparability is limited due to the different methodologies applied to calculate coefficients and differences in data sources used.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2004.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is longer than 4 data points.

There is good comparability within countries over time.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See table  sdg_02_50

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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