Ensuring future agricultural sustainability in China utilizing an observationally validated nutrient recommendation approach

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2021.126409

Language of the publication
English
Date
2021-10-19
Type
Article
Author(s)
  • He, Ping
  • Xu, Xinpeng
  • Zhou, Wei
  • Smith, Ward
  • He, Wentian
  • Grant, Brian
  • Ding, Wencheng
  • Qiu, Shaojun
  • Zhao, Shicheng
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.

Abstract

Fertilizer has revolutionized crop production, but a lack of evidence-based fertilizer usage has resulted in negative economic and environmental ramifications, particularly for smallholder farmers. This study aimed at developing an innovative nutrient recommendation approach, Nutrient Expert (NE), for improving yields of maize, wheat, and rice while optimizing fertilizer input through adoption of 4R (applying the right source of nutrients at the right rate, time and place) nutrient stewardship technologies, and evaluating the large-scale performance on crop productivity and the environmental impact of cropping systems. Thus, we compared NE to current farmers’ practice (FP) and soil test-based fertilizer application (ST) for 1,534 farm field experiments in order to validate the benefits of NE on both crop productivity and environmental protection in the main cereal production areas in China. Overall, the NE treatment achieved 4.4 % higher grain yield and 5.8 % more profit over FP, more yield for rice, but no differences for maize and wheat over ST. Nutrient Expert required 29.0 % and 14.7 % less fertilizer N than FP and ST, respectively. The NE recommendations improved the nitrogen (N) recovery efficiency by 10.8–13.4 percent points over FP across the 1,534 sites. Using the NE approach, on average, reactive N losses and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were reduced by 36.2 % and 21.5 % over FP, 16.0 % and 9.9 % over ST, respectively. The NE, as a user-friendly tool, is widely applicable across farm types and climatic regions. It could be beneficial for improving fertilizer use efficiency and maintaining strategic food security for smallholder production areas in China where N fertilizer is inappropriate and usually over applied. This approach could potentially be expanded to help reduce N losses and GHG emissions in other regions globally.

Subject

  • Agriculture

Rights

Peer review

Yes

Open access level

Gold

Identifiers

ISSN
1873-7331

Article

Journal title
European Journal of Agronomy
Journal volume
132
Article number
126409
Accepted date
2021-10-05
Submitted date
2020-10-18

Citation(s)

He, P., Xu, X., Zhou, W., Smith, W., He, W., Grant, B., Ding, W., Qiu, S., & Zhao, S. (2022). Ensuring future agricultural sustainability in China utilizing an observationally validated nutrient recommendation approach. European Journal of Agronomy, 132, 126409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2021.126409

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Crops and horticulture

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