Chemical fertilizer rate, use efficiency and reduction of cereal crops in China, 1998-2018

doi:10.1007/s11442-022-1936-2

Abstract

Abstract:

This paper studied the fertilizer rate (FR), fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) and fertilizer overuse rate (FOR) of rice, corn and wheat in China from 1998 to 2018 and briefly analysed the reasons why farmers were willing to apply more fertilizers. (1) The FR of grain in China reached 373.7 kg/ha in 2018, an increase of 26.8% compared to that in 1998. In 2018, the FR for corn was the highest, at 411.2 kg/ha, compared to the values of 338.3 kg/ha for rice and 371.7 kg/ha for wheat. (2) In recent years, the FUE of grain in China has obviously improved, with values of 32.9% in 1998, 36.7% in 2008, and 39.3% in 2018. In 2018, the FUE for rice was the highest (41.2%), followed by that for corn (39.9%), and the FUE for wheat was the lowest (36.0%). (3) By 2018, fertilizer was overused in all zones of rice, corn and wheat. In 2018, the average FOR for wheat reached 69.0%, which was 35.9% higher than that for corn and 42.8% higher than that for rice. (4) The lower price of chemical fertilizers was the main reason leading to overapplication. (5) Establishing market mechanisms and adjusting regional planting structures can be effective in reducing the application of chemical fertilizers.

Key words: fertilizer rate (FR), fertilizer use efficiency (FUE), fertilizer overuse rate (FOR), China, 1998-2018, three main grain crops

XIN Liangjie. Chemical fertilizer rate, use efficiency and reduction of cereal crops in China, 1998-2018[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2022, 32(1): 65-78.

Figures/Tables 9

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Term	Formula	Note
Partial factor productivity	PFP = Y/F	Y = Yield of harvested portion of crops with nutrients applied F = Amount of nutrients applied Y₀= Yield with no nutrients applied U_H = Nutrient content of harvested portion of crops U = Total nutrient uptake in aboveground crop biomass with nutrient applied U₀ = Nutrient uptake in aboveground crop biomass with no nutrients applied
Agronomic efficiency	AE = (Y-Y₀)/F
Partial nutrient balance	PNB = U_H/F
Apparent recovery efficiency by difference	RE = (U-U₀)/F
Internal utilization efficiency	IE = Y/U
Physiological efficiency	PE = (Y-Y₀)/(U-U₀)

Indices	Crop	Ⅰ	Ⅱ	Ⅲ	Ⅳ	Ⅴ	Ⅵ	Ⅶ	Ⅷ	Ⅸ
Harvest index	Corn	0.48	0.43	0.51	0.51	0.48	0.56	0.48	0.44	0.54
	Rice	0.52	0.50	0.37	0.46	0.57	0.58	0.50	0.49	0.55
	Wheat	0.50	0.45	0.50	0.42	0.45	0.34	0.46	0.54	0.42
Root/shoot ratio	Corn	0.11	0.14	0.13	0.16	0.12	0.13	0.15	0.11	0.16
	Rice	0.13	0.18	0.06	0.25	0.17	0.11	0.20	0.19	0.14
	Wheat	0.20	0.15	0.20	0.15	0.24	0.14	0.28	0.16	0.06

Crop	Nutrient contents in grain			Nutrient contents in straw/roots
Crop	N	P₂O₅	K₂O	N	P₂O₅	K₂O
Rice	1.46	0.62	1.92	0.83	0.27	2.06
Wheat	2.46	0.85	2.77	0.62	0.16	1.23
Corn	2.58	0.98	2.78	0.87	0.31	1.34

Zone		1998		2008		2018		Growth rate 1998-2018
Zone		FR	FUE	FR	FUE	FR	FUE	FR	FUE
	I-1	215.1	36.3	289.1	45.6	344.1	41.5	60.0	14.3
	I-2	313.5	39.6	345.8	43	380.6	44.6	21.4	12.6
	II-1	208.3	47.7	271.5	48.8	276.6	54.4	32.8	14.0
	II-2	288.5	41.3	311.5	41.1	364.4	43.6	26.3	5.6
	II-3	320.1	36.9	335.3	38.6	407.6	39	27.3	5.7
	III-1	306.4	31.3	295.2	35.3	309.6	38.4	1.0	22.7
	III-2	301.9	32.1	302.4	32.1	364.2	32.3	20.6	0.6
	IV	267.8	39.9	315.6	37.5	324	40.2	21.0	0.8
	V-1	446.6	34	504.6	34	483.2	39.1	8.2	15.0
	V-2	452.1	38.8	390	40	467.4	41.8	3.4	7.7
	V-3	456.9	34.2	504.6	34.7	483.2	40.7	5.8	19.0
	I-1	222	42	233.7	44.1	338	43.5	52.3	3.6
	I-2	398.4	34.3	342	26.2	449.4	38.6	12.8	12.5
	I-3	378.8	35.7	329.3	29.7	422.4	39.9	11.5	11.8
	I-4	324.2	38.6	317.4	29	370.5	40.8	14.3	5.7
	II-1	231.6	38.8	296.9	38.6	338.6	40.6	46.2	4.6
	II-2	234.5	29.4	302	31.2	382.4	33.7	63.1	14.6
	III-1	277.6	35.7	301.4	31.8	314.5	33.7	13.3	-5.6
	III-2	359.1	32.8	316.7	33.2	395.4	45.4	10.1	38.4
	III-3	454.5	26.3	381.2	30.5	496.6	34.4	9.3	30.8
	IV-1	276	25.3	302.4	34.9	320.4	44.5	16.1	75.9
	IV-2	293.8	23.6	315.5	37	333.6	36.1	13.5	53.0
	IV-3	320.6	23	368.9	26.6	387.8	31.2	21.0	35.7
	I	328.8	15.3	443.9	18.7	562.2	20	71.0	30.7
	II-1	235.8	29.1	335.2	30.1	413.4	36.9	75.3	26.8
	II-2	365.8	22.3	322.9	24.5	420.1	25	14.8	12.1
	III-1	374.9	29.7	382.1	35.2	429.5	34.8	14.6	17.2
	III-2	351.3	23.8	355.5	34.5	430.2	31.7	22.5	33.2
	IV	298.2	25.8	310.3	34.1	367.6	35.8	23.3	38.8
	V	189.5	40.2	191.1	38.4	201.1	42.1	6.1	4.7

Crop	Zone	Recommended rate (kg/ha)	Overuse rate (%)
Crop	Zone	Recommended rate (kg/ha)	1998	2008	2018
Rice	I-1	228.1	-5.7	26.7	50.9
	I-2	265.2	18.2	30.4	43.5
	II-1	272.7	-23.6	-0.4	1.4
	II-2	290.9	-0.8	7.1	25.3
	II-3	364.6	-12.2	-8.0	11.8
	III-1	285.2	7.4	3.5	8.6
	III-2	269.1	12.2	12.4	35.3
	IV	275.0	-2.6	14.8	17.8
	V-1	364.6	22.5	38.4	32.5
	V-2	364.6	24.0	7.0	28.2
	V-3	364.6	25.3	38.4	32.5
	Average	304.1	5.9	15.5	26.2
Corn	I-1	254.9	-12.9	-8.3	32.6
	I-2	314.6	26.6	8.7	42.8
	I-3	278.6	36.0	18.2	51.6
	I-4	286.4	13.2	10.8	29.4
	II-1	251.9	-8.1	17.9	34.4
	II-2	288.8	-18.8	4.6	32.4
	III-1	275.5	0.8	9.4	14.2
	III-2	302.6	18.7	4.7	30.7
	III-3	331.2	37.2	15.1	49.9
	IV-1	295.4	-6.6	2.4	8.5
	IV-2	261.6	12.3	20.6	27.5
	IV-3	271.7	18.0	35.8	42.7
	Average	284.4	9.7	11.6	33.1
Wheat	I	234.6	40.2	89.2	139.6
	II-1	192.4	22.6	74.2	114.9
	II-2	238.2	53.6	35.6	76.4
	III-1	290.4	29.1	31.6	47.9
	III-2	288.5	21.8	23.2	49.1
	IV	250.2	19.2	24.0	46.9
	V	185.7	2.0	2.9	8.3
	Average	240.0	26.9	40.1	69.0