Effect of Improved Fertilization on garlic and buckwheat Yields in Tibet
IPNI-2006-CHN-XZ6
30 Jan 2007
2006 Annual Interpretive Summary
Effect of Improved Fertilization on Garlic and Buckwheat Yields in Tibet, 2006
Garlic is a newly introduced spice crop grown in Tibet. A lack of appropriate nutrient management technology exists to acquire high yield, high quality product, and improve farm income. Under such circumstances, fertilizer recommendations are just an approximation borrowed from historic garlic production areas where all growth conditions like soils, climate, elevation, and crop rotation differ considerably from the Tibetan Plateau. Buckwheat has been grown in more remote regions of Tibet for generations. However, it receives little or no fertilizers and little care after sowing, resulting in poor yield and quality unless the soil is inherently fertile. Thus, the objectives of the project were to test the responses of the two crops to N, P, and K fertilizers and to determine the optimal fertilizer rates for future extension.
The balanced optimum (OPT) treatment of 180-75-60 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for garlic and 240-45-45 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for buckwheat produced the highest crop yields. The highest yields were 4,300 kg garlic shoots/ha, 36,702 kg garlic heads/ha, and 2,300 kg buckwheat seeds/ha. Nitrogen was determined as the most limiting factor for garlic and buckwheat, followed by P and K for garlic, and K and P for buckwheat. Without N application, garlic yields were reduced by 1,800 kg/ha (42%) for shoots and 20,202 kg/ha (55%) for heads. Without N, buckwheat seed yield was reduced by 933 kg/ha (41%). Without P and K application, yields of garlic shoots and heads declined by 23% to 24% and buckwheat by 22% and 35%, respectively. These preliminary results have been used for fertilizer recommendations in the garlic and buckwheat areas in Tibet, but further field validation and demonstrations are required. Tibet-BFDP-06