Nutrient Management and Balanced Fertilization on Major Crops in Jilin Province

This study was conducted to validate the long-term effect of a Nutrient Expert^(R) (NE)-based fertilizer recommendation for spring maize in farmer fields. Results for the NE were compared against farmer fertilization practices (FP). For this project, starting in 2012, 10 on-farm experiments were successively conducted in three different counties in Gongzhuling, Jilin.

Nutrient Expert recommendations achieved a higher average grain yield (12 t/ha) with less fertilizer input (168 kg N, 75 kg P₂O₅ and 90 kg K₂O/ha), compared to FP (11.5 t/ha) with 239 kg N, 127 kg P₂O₅ and 94 kg K₂O/ha. In addition, NE increased profit by 7% over the FP treatment. NE had a agronomic efficiency (AE) for N of 22.7 kg/kg, and a recovery efficiency (RE) of N of 45.4%, which was much higher than the values obtained under FP at 13.9 kg/kg and 30.1%, respectively.

Our results show that NE not only increased maize grain yields and profits, but could also improve the N use efficiency parameters for three successive and continuous spring maize crops.