Nutrient Management Strategies for Hainan

IPNI-2003-CHN-HI25

16 Jan 2006

2005 Annual Interpretive Summary

Nutrient Management Strategies for Banana in Hainan, 2005

Two monitored villages were established in Ledong and Dongfang counties during 2003, wherein soil nutrient limitations were initially identified through soil testing and subsequently transferred to digitized nutrient variability maps in 2004. Banana field trials were conducted in 2005 in order to verify the nutrient limitations identified by soil testing and compare yield obtained with balanced fertilization [nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) BF] to those obtained with common farmer practices (FP).

In Ledong, banana yield improved by 15.5 t/ha (+28%) with a balanced application of 900-450-1,800 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha. It is common for farmers to apply a rate of 770-900-1,200 kg/ha. At Dongfang, BF supplying 600-300-900 kg/ha produced 14.5 t/ha (+32.4%) more fruit yield than FP using 600-600-600 kg/ha. Net income resulting from BF was US$2,670/ha (+34.2%) at Ledong and US$2,660/ha (+42.8%) at Dongfang.

After several years of field trials and demonstrations, balanced fertilization technology for banana is ready to be extended to surrounding regions having similar conditions. Hainan-NMS01