Nutrient Management and Optimized Fertilization on Maize in Heilongjiang Province

Nutrient Expert® (NE) is a new, computer-based decision support tool developed to assist local experts to formulate fertilizer guidelines for maize (corn), and is based on the principles of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM). This tool comes in handy, especially when soil testing facilities are not easily accessible, which makes timely fertilizer recommendations difficult. This study was conducted to validate NE-based fertilizer recommendations for spring maize in farmer fields and compare them with farmer fertilizer practice (FFP). For this, 17 on-farm experiments were conducted in four different counties in Heilongjiang province. While each individual site had a site-specific rate applied, on average the NE-based plots received 168 kg N, 61 kg P₂O₅ and 84 kg K₂O/ha, while the farmer fertilizer practice (FFP) plots received an average of 169 kg N, 58 kg P₂O₅ and 52 kg K₂O.

Grain yield (10.8 t/ha) and profit (US$3,181/ha) were higher in NE-based treatment plots than in the FFP plots, where corresponding values were 10.0 t/ha and $2,954/ha. Also, higher agronomic (18.1 kg/kg) and recovery (32%) efficiencies of N were obtained using NE-based fertilizer recommendations vis-a-vis FFP, where corresponding values were 13.1 kg/kg and 25%. This was likely due to the fact that NE-based treatment used N, P and K fertilizers in greater balance than that used in the FFP. Thus, results of this study showed a good promise for NE-based fertilizer recommendations to extend to farmers. Heilongjiang-NMBF