Maize yield and soil fertility with combined use of compost and inorganic fertilizers on a calcareous soil on the North China Plain
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The North China Plain (NCP) is one of the most intensive major grain producing agricultural regions in China where about 35 million ha of crops are cultivated and at least 14 million ha are dominated by the winter wheat-summer maize rotational cropping system (Liu et al., 2013, Michalczyk et al., 2014). The NCP accounts for 50 and 33%, respectively, of the country’s total yields of winter wheat and summer maize (Wang et al., 2012). The crop yields and the sustainability of agriculture in this region therefore have great implications for China’s food security. The importance of this cropping system on the NCP for Chinese agriculture in the near future has been further emphasized recently due to the increasing human population and a shift in the diet of the Chinese in the future for more livestock produce (Jiang et al., 2006).
The NCP is experiencing the intensification of agricultural production typical of rapid growth in the demand for food by an increasing population and rapid economic development. Historically the soil has had inherent low soil fertility and farmers have traditionally amended the soil with farmyard manure to maintain crop yields. Since 1980 manures have been replaced by synthetic fertilizers because of the lower cost of fertilizers and their transport and application (Yang et al., 2015). Excessive use of fertilizers, and in particular of N, as an ‘insurance’ for reliable yield and income became a common practice in this region. During the past 30 years (1980–2008), crop yields on the NCP increased by a factor of 2.8 (2200–6200 kg ha−1), grain production by a factor of 2.6 (23–59 million tons) and application rate of chemical fertilizers increased by a factor of 5.1 (68–350 kg ha−1) (Pei et al., 2013). The annual total application rate of synthetic N for conventional agricultural practices ranges from 550 to 600 kg N ha−1 for the winter wheat–summer maize double cropping system (Zhao et al., 2006), while the minimal soil nitrate-N content needed to achieve maximum grain yields and N uptake was about 180 kg ha−1 (Cui et al., 2008b). As a result, the apparent N recovery (ANR) of cereal grain production decreased from 30% to 35% in the 1980s (Yan et al., 2014) and to less than 20% in the 2000s (Cui et al., 2008a). The partial factor productivity from applied N (PFPN) decreased from 55 kg kg−1 in 1978 (Zhu and Chen, 2002) to 30 kg kg−1 in 2011 (Jin et al., 2012). Excessive N application leads to environmental pollution in terms of soil acidification (Guo et al., 2010) eutrophication (Zhang et al., 2011), and greenhouse gas emissions and N deposition (Liu et al., 2013, Ju et al., 2009). There is therefore a major challenge to ensure food security while reducing environmental costs in this region.
Recently there has been increasing interest in incorporating manure nutrient management towards sustainable agricultural intensification in China (Chadwick et al., 2015). There is a wealth of data from long-term observation experimental sites in China and in other countries (Ai et al., 2012, Maillard and Angers, 2014) showing that continuous application of NP fertilizer plus organic materials including straw (Lu et al., 2009) and composts (Rasool et al., 2008), significantly increases crop yields and soil quality, particularly soil organic matter (SOM) content (Demelash et al., 2014). For example, a mixed application of inorganic fertilizers and crop residues for 22 years substantially increased soil organic carbon (SOC) by 11% and corn yields by 75% on the NCP (Yang et al., 2015). Previous studies in Henan province on the NCP have shown that SOC increased by about 92% from 4.47 to 8.61 g C g−1 after 13 years under long-term combined organic and mineral fertilizer application (Ding et al., 2007). Körschens et al. (2013) found that combined mineral and organic fertilization resulted in a 6% yield benefit compared with mineral fertilizers alone by summarizing the results of 20 European long-term experiments. After five years in an experiment, the yield and SOC in the organic fertilizer treatment increased by 126% and 7%, respectively, compared with the chemical fertilizer treatment (Bedada et al., 2014).
Since the mid-1990s there has been increasing agricultural mechanization, particularly the use of combine harvesters and field straw choppers and local farmers now return straw to the field instead of burning it in situ or using it as a fuel (Zhang et al., 2008). In addition, larger quantities of manure nutrients will be generated over the next 20 years with the increasing demand for livestock produce and changes in dietary preferences towards animal proteins (Chadwick et al., 2015). However, in practice as organic manures may not always be available on site, an important question is whether or not straw can as good as organic manures for the maintenance of soil fertility and high crop yields. It is known that application of organic matter (OM) may take a long time to have a significant influence on soil fertility. Long-term experiments have the advantage of studying changes in soil properties and processes over time (Rasmussen et al., 1998). Similarly, the temporal monitoring of changes in soil nutrients, particularly N, can be important for long-term manure management and may potentially avoid long-term undesirable negative impacts on the environment. Understanding N dynamics associated with short-term compost application and straw return can therefore be instructive for the long-term management of organic resources. The objective of the present study was to monitor temporal N uptake by maize over three years under different N management practices. Crop yields, N efficiency and soil nutrients were compared in current conventional practice and 30% replacement of inorganic N fertilizer by compost or by compost + straw.
Section snippets
Experimental site
An experiment was carried out for three years (2012–2014) in a summer-maize and winter-wheat double cropping system close to the experimental station of China Agricultural University (36°42′N, 114°54′E, 40 m a.s.l.) in Quzhou county, Heibei province. The soil is classified as a Cambisol with a silt loam texture according to IUSS Working Group WRB (2007). It has the following properties (Table 1): pH 7.24 (H2O), 0.90 g kg−1 total N, 13.7 g kg−1 OM, 12.01 mg kg−1 Olsen-P, and 176.2 mg kg−1 available K (NH4
Grain yield, dry matter accumulation, N uptake and N efficiency indices
Visible N deficiency occurred in the control (T1) and maize yields were significantly reduced in all three years (Table 3). Fertilization increased maize yields but there was no significant difference among treatments. Although the grain yields of the compost treatments did not differ significantly from that of the T2 treatment, application of compost tended to increase grain yield particularly in the second and third years. The average yield increase was approximately 7–10% or 8–15% in
Discussion
The importance of rational N management to reduce N losses, sustain food security and protect the environment in north China has been emphasized by numerous studies (Chen et al., 2014, Cui et al., 2008a, Ju et al., 2009, Hartmann et al., 2015). Our results indicate that 30% replacement of synthetic fertilizer N by compost or compost + manure can maintain biomass accumulation and yield of maize (Table 3, Table 4). Similarly, 50% N replacement by farmyard manure over six years gave higher yields of
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB150500) and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (201103004).
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