Americas and Oceania Group - International Plant Nutrition Institute

Nutrient Expert-based Fertilizer Recommendations for Winter Wheat and Spring Maize in Henan
Project Leader: Kegang Sun, Henen Academy of Agricultural Sciences Soil and Fertilizer Institute, Zhengzhou, Henan.
E-mail: kgsun@371.net, kgsun@ppi.caas.ac.cn
Project Cooperator: Bingqi Li
This study was conducted to validate Nutrient Expert (NE)-based fertilizer recommendations for winter
wheat and spring maize in farmer fields and compare them with farmer fertilizer practice (FFP). For this,
thirty (30) on-farm experiments were conducted for wheat and 12 for maize in Zhumadian, Henan province.
NE-based fertilizer recommendation plots received on average 154-78-79 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha for wheat and
150-50-62 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha for maize, respectively, while farmer fertilizer practice (FFP) plots received
an average of 249-119-119 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha for wheat and 206-15-15 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha for maize,
respectively.
First year results of the study showed that grain yields and profits in NE were both higher than those in FFP
treatments. However, significantly higher agronomic efficiency of N (16.6 kg/kg for wheat and 18.4 kg/kg for
maize), N recovery efficiency (52.9% for wheat and 43.0% for maize), and partial factor productivity (52.0
kg/kg for wheat and 53.0 kg/kg for maize) were obtained using NE-based fertilizer recommendations than
using FFP, where the corresponding FFP values were 9.7 kg/kg and 12.7 kg/kg, 18.6% and 25.2%, and 31.5
kg/kg and 38 kg/kg for wheat and maize, respectively. With NE, 38.2% and 25.2% less fertilizer N was used
than that used in FFP for wheat and maize, respectively. The study demonstrated that NE was an effective
fertilizer recommendation method in Henan. Henan-NMBF
Global Maize Project in China: Dahe, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province
Project Leader: Mengchao Liu, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment Hebei Academy of Agricultural
Sciences. E-mail: lmchao1758@sohu.com
Project Cooperator: Chunjie Li
This long-term experiment was initiated in June 2009 in Hebei province. Summer maize was the first
crop grown at this site, where winter wheat-summer maize rotation system is common. The main plot had
two treatments: a) ecological intensification (EI) treatment with 120-60-80 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha fertilizer
application in winter wheat and 150-40-50 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha in summer maize; and b) farmer practice
(FP) treatment with 225-120-50 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha fertilizer application in winter wheat and 300-135-0 kg
N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O/ha in summer maize. Three subplots included: a) N applied in all 3 years (N all yr), b) N applied
in 2 of every 3 years (N 2/3 yr), and c) no N applied (N 0 yr). Winter wheat was planted on October 19,
2010 and harvested on June 18, 2011, while summer maize (storage maize) was planted in the same plots on
August 20, 2011 and harvested on October 12, 2011.
No significant difference in grain yields was found between EI and FP treatments for winter wheat,
although higher N and P were applied in FP. However, agronomic N efficiency (kg grain yield increase per kg
N applied) was higher in the EI treatment (13.3 kg/kg) than in the FP treatment (9.4 kg/kg). Similarly, partial
factor productivity of N (kg grain yield per kg N applied) was considerably higher in the EI treatment (67.3
kg/kg) than in the FP treatment (37.7 kg/kg). Similar trends for grain yield and N use efficiencies were found
in summer maize. N 2/3 yr treatment produced yields similar to N all yr treatment. This demonstrated that
skipping N application in two seasons did not affect the grain yield during the third maize growing season.
IPNI-21 v
82 IPNI Interpretive Summaries