Nitrogen is a component of amino acids , the building blocks of proteins.

The N content of most proteins varies between 14 and 18%. Plants need
nitrogen primarily for leaf development. The amount of N taken up by
crops directly affects the size of the green canopy (total LEI) through which
plants absorb sunlight and CO2 for photosynthesis. Cereals use around
30kg of N to form 1 ha of green canopy, this is nearer to 40 kg for sugar beet
and potatoes. The Earths atmosphere is approximately 78% nitrogen
existing as an inert gas which the majority of living organisms cannot
exploit. Nitrogen, therefore has to be fixed before use. Farmers use both
organic manure and mineral nitrogen on their crops. The main problem
with nitrogen is not so much the cost of the input but the ease in which it
can be lost from the system. Nitrogen is the only crop nutrient that can be
lost in significant amounts to the atmosphere in gaseous form . It is also
very easily lost in its soluble form as nitrate ions via leaching.

The Nitrogen Cycle

A convenient way of visualizing the movement of nitrogen is to identify the

internal pathways (in the farming system) and the many sources of loss an
addition of nitrogen to the system. Many different graphical
representations of the N cycle have been published, the one below is a
fairly simple representation, covering all the key points.
Adapted from Solving the Nitrate Problem. MAFF (1996)