Abstract
Approaches to meet increasing demand for cereals while improving agricultural resource use efficiency have been extensively studied. However, the dominant intensive agricultural paradigm still considers high yield and increased nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) to be contradictory goals. The objective of this study was to determine whether increased yield requires a proportional increase in N application. Two groups of N treatments were compared at 33 field sites in four wheat producing provinces of China. With a high-yield system (HY), the average yield, PFPN and AEN were 42.3, 37.6 and 38.7% higher than current farming practice (CP), respectively. The average estimated maximum grain yield for HY was 8563 kg ha–1 over 2 years, 2007 and 2008, which was 44.2% higher than under CP (5938 kg ha–1). The optimal N rate for HY was 185 kg ha−1, which was significantly higher than that under CP (149 kg ha−1). The increased wheat yield with HY was accompanied by 24.1% increase in optimal N rate. Significant relationships were found between 0-N (unfertilized control) yield and the estimated maximum yield and AEN with HY and CP. There were also decreasing trends for PFPN and AEN with increasing N rate in HY and CP. These on-farm observations indicate that achieving increased yield does not require a proportional increase in the amount of N fertilizer, which provides a win–win opportunity to meet food demand while improving NUE.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bruinsma, J. (2011). The resources outlook: by how much do land, water and crop yields need to increase by 2050? Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 233–278
Cassman, K. G., Dobermann, A., & Walters, D. T. (2002). Nitrogen-use efficiency, and nitrogen management. Ambio, 31, 132–140.
Cerrato, M. E., & Blackmer, A. M. (1990). Comparison of models for describing corn yield response to nitrogen fertilizer. Agronomy Journal, 82, 138–143.
Chen, X. P., Cui, Z. L., Fan, M. S., Vitousek, P., Zhao, M., Ma, W. Q., Zhang, W. F., Yan, X. Y., Yang, J. C., Deng, X. L., Gao, Q., Zhang, Q., Guo, S. W., Ren, J., Li, S. Q., Ye, Y. L., Wang, Z. H., Huang, J., Tang, Q., … Zhang, F. S. (2014). Producing more grain with lower environmental costs. Nature, 514, 486–489.
Chen, X. P., Cui, Z. L., Vitousek, P. M., Cassman, K. G., Matson, P. A., Bai, J. S., Meng, Q. F., Hou, P., Yue, S. C., & Römheld, V. (2011). Integrated soil-crop system management for food security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 6399–6404.
Costabr, R., Pinheiro, N., Almeida, A., Gomes, C., Coutinho, J., & Coco, J. (2013). Effect of sowing date and seeding rate on bread wheat yield and test weight under Mediterranean conditions. Emirates Journal of Food & Agriculture, 25, 951–961.
Cui, Z. L., Yue, S. C., Wang, G. L., Zhang, F. S., & Chen, X. P. (2013). In-season root-zone N management for mitigating greenhouse gas emission and reactive N losses in intensive wheat production. Environmental Science & Technology, 47, 6015–6022.
Cui, Z. L., Zhang, F. S., Chen, X. P., Miao, Y. X., & Li, J. L. (2008a). On-farm evaluation of an in-season nitrogen management strategy based on soil Nmin test. Field Crops Research, 105, 48–55.
Cui, Z. L., Zhang, F. S., Chen, X. P., Miao, Y. X., & Li, J. L. (2008b). On-farm estimation of indigenous nitrogen supply for site-specific nitrogen management in the North China plain. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 81, 37–47.
Fan, M. S., Lal, R., Cao, J., Qiao, L., Su, Y., Jiang, R. F., & Zhang, F. S. (2013). Plant-based assessment of inherent soil productivity and contributions to China’s cereal crop yield increase since 1980. PLoS ONE, 8, e74617.
FAO. (2012). FAOSTAT Database. FAO. http://faostat.fao.org
FAO. (2014). FAOSTAT Database. FAO. http://faostat.fao.org
Fischer, R. A., Byerlee, D., & Edmeades, G. O. (2014). Crop yields and global food security: will yield increase continue to feed the world? Food Security, 6(6), 903–904.
Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., & Johnston, M. (2011). Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature, 478, 337–342.
Hall, A. J., & Richards, R. A. (2013). Prognosis for genetic improvement of yield potential and water-limited yield of major grain crops. Field Crops Research, 143, 18–33.
IFA. (2012). International Fertilizer Industry Association. FAO. http://www.fertilizer.org
Ju, X. T., Xing, G. X., Chen, X. P., Zhang, S. L., Zhang, L. J., Liu, X. J., Cui, Z. L., Yin, B., Peter, C., Zhu, Z. L., Zhang, F. S., & Tilman, G. D. (2009). Reducing environmental risk by improving N management in intensive Chinese agricultural systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 8077–8078.
Liu, Y. J., Zhang, J., & Ge, Q. (2020). The optimization of wheat yield through adaptive crop management in a changing climate: evidence from China. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Mueller, N. D., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., Ray, D. K., & Foley, J. A. (2012). Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature, 490, 254–257.
Peter, S. C., Liang, W. L., Stephen, T., Dean, P. H., John, P. D., Tim, M., Neil, I. H., Chen, F., Zvi, H., & Brian, A. K. (2013). Scope for improved eco-efficiency varies among diverse cropping systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 8381–8386.
Rahimizadeh, M., Kashani, A., Zare-Feizabadi, A., Koocheki, A., & Nassiri-Mahallati, M. (2010). Nitrogen use efficiency of wheat as affected by preceding crop, application rate of nitrogen and crop residues. Australian Journal of Crop Science, 4, 363–368.
Ray, D. K., Mueller, N. D., West, P. C., & Foley, J. A. (2013). Yield trends are insufficient to double global crop production by 2050. PLoS ONE, 8, e66428.
Tian, Z. W., Liu, X. X., Gu, S. L., Yu, J. H., Zhang, L., Zhang, W. W., Jiang, D., Cao, W. X., & Dai, T. B. (2018). Postponed and reduced basal nitrogen application improves nitrogen use efficiency and plant growth of winter wheat. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 17, 2648–2661.
Tilman, D., Balzer, C., Hill, J. L., & Befort, B. L. (2011). Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B-biological Sciences, 108, 20260–20264.
Tilman, D., Cassman, K. G., Matson, P. A., Naylor, R., & Polasky, S. (2002). Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature, 418, 671–677.
Wang, F. H., Kong, L. A., Sayre, K., Li, S. D., Si, J. S., Feng, B., & Zhang, B. (2011). Morphological and yield responses of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to raised bed planting in northern china. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 6, 2991–2997.
Wang, X. Y., Chun, B. G., & Zhang, Y. L. (2012). Effects of postponing N application on wheat grain yield, protein quality and fertilizer-N use efficiency in a low yield field in Jianghan Plain. Advance Journal of Food Ence & Technology, 4, 357–361.
Wang, W., Lu, J., Ren, T., Li, X., Su, W., & Lu, M. (2012). Evaluating regional mean optimal nitrogen rates in combination with indigenous nitrogen supply for rice production. Field Crops Research, 137, 37–48.
Zhang, F. S., Cui, Z. L., Fan, M. S., Zhang, W. F., Chen, X. P., & Jiang, R. F. (2011). Integrated soil-crop system management: reducing environmental risk while increasing crop productivity and improving nutrient use efficiency in China. Journal of Environmental Quality, 40, 1051–1057.
Zhang, Z., Zhang, Y. L., Shi, Y., & Yu, Z. W. (2020). Optimized split nitrogen fertilizer increase photosynthesis, grain yield, nitrogen use efficiency and water use efficiency under water-saving irrigation. Scientific Reports, 10, 20310.
Zhao, M., Tian, Y., Zhang, M., Yao, Y., Ao, Y., Yin, B., & Zhu, Z. L. (2015). Nonlinear response of nitric oxide emissions to a nitrogen application gradient: a case study during the wheat season in a Chinese rice-wheat rotation system. Atmospheric Environment, 102, 200–208.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Program of Advanced Discipline Construction in Beijing (Agriculture Green Development), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0200107), the Special Fund of Basic Scientific Research of China Agricultural University (2020TC155), and Taishan Scholarship Project of Shandong Province (TS201712082) for their financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cai, T., Chen, Y., Pan, J. et al. Improved Crop Management Achieved High Wheat Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency. Int. J. Plant Prod. 15, 317–324 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42106-021-00139-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42106-021-00139-3