Nutrient Management and Optimized Fertilization on Wheat and Maize in Henan Province

The project has been focusing on Nutrient Expert based fertilizer recommendation since 2010

IPNI-2006-CHN-HA16

26 Feb 2010

2009 Annual Interpretive Summary

Nutrient Management and Balanced Fertilization on Wheat and Maize in Henan, 2009

This project’s goals are to determine the optimal (OPT) rates of N, P, and K fertilizers and provide scientific recommendations for fertilizer application in a winter wheat-summer maize rotation located within the black soil region of southern Henan Province. For winter wheat, treatments included an OPT of 180-105-105 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, three nutrient omission plots, farmers’ practice (FP) of 195-75-75 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, and an unfertilized check (CK). A separate site for summer maize used the above structure of treatments as well; however, the OPT for summer maize was 180-60-150 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha and FP included 240-0-0 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha.

The OPT produced best yields for both winter wheat (7.6 t/ha) and summer maize (7.4 t/ha). All nutrient omission plots had significantly lower wheat and maize yields compared to the OPT. Nitrogen was most limiting in both crops, while P was more significant than K in wheat and the opposite held true for maize. Yields in the FP treatment were only 5.3% (wheat) and 9.3% (maize) lower than the OPT. Thus, the higher N rates used in the FP could not generate any yield advantages even if the soil fertility was low. The OPT was also able to increase agronomic efficiency (AE) for N. Values for AE in winter wheat were 12.1 kg grain increase/kg N for the OPT and 9.1 kg grain increase/kg N for FP. The AE values for summer maize where 13.2 kg grain increase/kg N in the OPT and 7.0 kg grain increase/kg N in the FP.

The selected OPT treatments were more balanced and could enhance yield and N use efficiency for both winter wheat and summer maize. Henan-NMBF