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

25 Jan 2013

2012 Annual Interpretive Summary

Nutrient Expert®-based Fertilizer Recommendations for Winter Wheat and Summer Maize in Henan, 2012
This study was conducted to validate Nutrient Expert® (NE)-based fertilizer recommendations for winter wheat and summer maize in farmer fields and compare them with farmer fertilizer practice (FFP). For this, 20 on-farm wheat and 17 on-farm maize experiments were conducted in Hebi and Zhengzhou, Henan province. NE-based fertilizer recommendation plots received on average 183-97-90 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for wheat and 178-71-80 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for maize; while farmer fertilizer practice (FFP) plots received an average of 198-118-89 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for wheat and 175-95-95 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha for maize.

Results from the first year of this study showed that grain yields (7.4 t/ha and 11.6 t/ha for wheat and maize, respectively) and profits (US$2,138/ha and $3,640/ha for wheat and maize, respectively) in NE were higher than those in FFP treatments. The corresponding yield values were 7.1 and 11.0 t/ha and profits were $2,008/ha and $3,412/ha in FFP for wheat and maize, respectively. Also, higher agronomic efficiency of N (8.0 kg/kg for wheat and 8.6 kg/kg for maize), N recovery efficiency (13% for wheat and 26% for maize), and partial factor productivity of N (40 kg/kg for wheat and 66 kg/kg for maize) were obtained using NE-based fertilizer recommendations than using FFP, where the corresponding values were 7.9 and 5.4 kg/kg, 12 and 26%, and 36 kg/kg and 63 kg/kg for wheat and maize, respectively. The NE treatment did not always reduce fertilizer rate (slightly higher N rate for maize was used in this study in NE compared with FFP), but applied N, P and K fertilizers in greater balance than in FFP in this study. Henan-NMBF