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Green Window Approach for improving nitrogen management by farmers in small-scale wheat fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2014

X. L. YUE ,
Y. HU ,
H. Z. ZHANG  and
U. SCHMIDHALTER
X. L. YUE
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, Chair of Plant Nutrition, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Street 2, D-85350 Freising, Germany Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhongguancun South Road 12, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China
Y. HU
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, Chair of Plant Nutrition, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Street 2, D-85350 Freising, Germany
H. Z. ZHANG
Affiliation:
Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhongguancun South Road 12, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China
U. SCHMIDHALTER*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, Chair of Plant Nutrition, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Street 2, D-85350 Freising, Germany
*
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Email: schmidhalter@wzw.tum.de
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Summary

Improvement of nitrogen (N) use efficiency is urgently needed since excessive application of N fertilizer has been widespread in small-scale fields in China, causing great losses of N fertilizer and environmental pollution. In the present study, a simple technology, termed the Green Window Approach (GWA), to optimize N strategies for cereal crops is presented. The GWA represents an on-field demonstration site visualizing the effects of incremental N levels and enables farmers to conduct such a trial within their own fields. The lowest N rate that achieves no visible change in plant growth or biomass shows the optimal N requirement of crops. Therefore the objective was to develop the key procedures of GWA and to evaluate the effects of its application in cereal crops on grain yield, N use efficiency and economic benefit. A total of seven GWA trials were performed from 2009 to 2011 on farmers’ irrigated wheat fields in the North China Plain. The GWA consisted of eight small plots placed in a compact layout on a well-accessible part of the field. Plot size varied from 2·5×2·5 to 4×4 m2, depending on the size and shape of each field. All GWA plots received basal nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) rates of 30 kg N/ha (except for the nil-N plot), 80 kg P2O5/ha and 100 kg K2O/ha. Nitrogen supplies, including residual soil nitrate in 0–90 cm determined at Zadoks growth stages (GS) 21–23 in early spring and the split-topdressing N at GS 21–23 and GS 41–52, were incrementally increased from 0 to 420 kg N/ha. The remaining part of the field still received farmers’ customary fertilization (FCF). Optimal N rate could be estimated as the lowest N rate that achieved no visible change in plant growth at GS 60–73. Compared with FCF area, grain yield was increased by 13% to a maximum or near maximum value of 5·8 t/ha, optimal N rate was sharply decreased by 69% to 116 kg N/ha, apparent N recovery was greatly increased from 11 to 46%, whereas the cost of fertilizer input was decreased by 57% to 1045 Chinese Renminbi (RMB)/ha (162 US$/ha), the profit of grain yield was increased by 13% to 12 211 RMB/ha (1891 US$/ha) and the net economic benefits were increased by 60% to 7473 RMB/ha (1157 US$/ha). Most importantly, the GWA does not need laboratory facilities, complicated procedures or professional knowledge of N balances, and farmers can easily understand and use GWA by themselves.

Type
Crops and Soils Research Papers
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 153 , Issue 3 , April 2015 , pp. 446 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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