Abstract
In vegetable fields in Shimousa plateau, a survey was carried out to find the state of nitrate nitrogen flowing out from the farmland. A measure was taken to decrease leaching of nitrogen with carrot cultivation, a major crop, and its effect was evaluated. (1) There were fields with large amount of residual nitrogen and concentrations of nitrate nitrogen were higher than the environmental standard at a depth of four meters after harvesting of vegetables. The data indicated that nitrogen leaching out from the farmland was likely to burden to groundwater. (2) The level of nitrate nitrogen in permeating water was inferred to exceed 15 mg/ L in surveyed fields from nitrogen balance. This calculation showed that a 23% cut of nitrogen input would decrease nitrate nitrogen in permeating water to 10 mg/L or less. (3) As a measure to diminish nitrogen by effective utilization of residual nitrogen, nitrogen input was decreased by 25% in a carrot field. As a result, the yield was comparable to conventional method.
