Estimation of national and regional phosphorous budgets for agriculture in Turkey

Abstract

This paper presents national and regional phosphorus (P) budgets for agriculture in Turkey by using Eurostat/OECD common methodology. Regional P budgets presented in this paper are the first estimations for Turkey known to date. In Turkey, the values of P surplus for agriculture (PS) and P use efficiency for agriculture (PUE) in 2011 were 2 kg P ha-1 yr-1 and 77%, respectively. PS values varied from -2 to 15 kg P ha-1 yr-1 among regions in 2011. In 2008, PS and PUE values (0 kg P ha-1 yr-1 and 96%, respectively) were lower than the average EU values (3 kg P ha-1 yr-1 and 104%), including Norway and Switzerland. The relationship between PS values and some socio-economic properties in Turkey regions were also analyzed. According to the results, the correlations of PS with gross domestic product per capita, permanent meadows and pastures share in utilized agricultural area (UAA), population density, illiterate share and arable land share in UAA were statistically significant. We can conclude from the study results that the environmental effect of agricultural phosphorus on water bodies varies greatly both among regions in Turkey and among European countries because of high variations in PS values.