Inorganic fertilizer use and biodiversity risk: An empirical investigation

There are persistent concerns and accumulating evidence of rapid losses in biodiversity. A critical issue is that biodiversity loss may lead to changes in ecosystem functioning, with concordant threats to the stability and resilience of agricultural systems. Against this backdrop, this research investigates the empirical relationship between the intensity of inorganic fertilizer use and biodiversity risk. Using cross-country biodiversity risk indices, our statistical estimates indicate that the amount of inorganic fertilizer use per hectare of arable land is significantly related to increasing biodiversity risk. Robust findings across various specifications hold after controlling for heterogeneity across countries, including the scale of agricultural production.