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

This study was conducted to validate Nutrient Expert (NE)-based fertilizer recommendations for winter wheat in farmer fields and compare them with farmer fertilizer practice (FFP). For this, thirty two (32) on-farm experiments were conducted in four different counties in Xinji, Hebei Province. NE-based fertilizer recommendation plots received on average 135-52-60 kg N-P₂O₅-K₂O/ha, respectively, while farmer fertilizer practice (FFP) plots received an average of 278-42-24 kg N-P₂O₅-K₂O/ha, respectively.

First year results of the study showed that although grain yields in NE (7.6 t/ha) and FFP (7.4 t/ha) treatments were statistically similar, the profit obtained was higher in NE (USD 2,439/ha) when compared with FFP (USD 2,281/ha). Moreover, significantly higher agronomic efficiency of N (8.8 kg/kg), N recovery efficiency (29.4%), and partial factor productivity (56.8 kg/kg) were obtained using NE-based fertilizer recommendations than using FFP, where the corresponding values were 3.2 kg/kg, 14.2%, and 27 kg/kg. The study demonstrated that NE was an effective fertilizer recommendation method in Hebei. Hebei-NMBF