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

A long-term field experiment was established in 2009 at Dahe Experimental Station near Shijiazhuang City, Hebei to investigate the ability of ecological intensification (EI) practices to improve yields and minimize adverse environmental impacts within a typical winter wheat-summer maize cropping system in Northcentral China. The experiment uses two main treatments consisting of EI (240-60-90 kg N-P₂O₅-K₂O/ha) and farmer practice (FP) (140-138-0 kg N-P₂O₅-K₂O/ha) and three different split treatments for N including: 1) N applied in all 3 years, 2) N applied in 2 of every 3 years, and zero N applied in all 3 years.
Compared with FP, the selected EI treatment failed to produce a maize yield response, but it did promote N uptake. No advantage was observed for N use efficiency parameters including recovery efficiency, agronomic efficiency, or partial factor productivity under EI...most likely due to over-application of N. The EI treatment resulted in a surplus input of N, P, and K, while FP produced a P surplus and a deficit of N and K. Further adjustments should be focused on reducing nutrient input within the EI treatment. Hebei-NMBF