Fertiliser/soil ameliorant use

TNFD: FA.A2.1

This metric only reflects one aspect of the impacts of fertiliser use, i.e. the consumption of natural resources such as potash and fossil fuels. Other potential impacts, e.g. on water quality and greenhouse gas emissions, are considered under those headings.

Note that TNFD core global disclosure metric C2.0 “Pollutants released to soil (tonnes) by type, referring to sector-specific guidance on types of pollutants”, which is aligned with NCMC metric “Contamination and waste“, is interpreted as including nitrogen, phosphorus, and, where relevant, potassium and other nutrients (e.g. micronutrients) for Agricultural products; Meat, poultry and dairy industries. However, many fertilisers and soil ameliorants are based on non-renewable natural resources and therefore have an impact on natural capital through the depletion of these environmental assets, regardless of whether they may then become pollutants if applied in excess to ecosystem requirements. Therefore it can be helpful to measure fertiliser and soil ameliorant use as a separate impact metric to the release of pollutants to soil (NCMC “Contamination and waste” metric).

Variants of this metric include TNFD. Food and agriculture additional disclosure metric FA.A2.1: “Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), ratio of total N inputs and total N outputs to produce a crop, animal product or agrifood product.”