Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9467418 | Agricultural Water Management | 2005 | 17 Pages |
Abstract
The wheat- (Triticum aestivum L.) and corn- (Zea mays L.) rotation system is important for food security in Northwest China. Grain yield and water-use efficiency [WUE: grain yield/estimated evapotranspiration (ET)] were recorded during a 24-year fertilization trial in Pingliang (Gansu, China). Mean yields of wheat for the 16 years, starting in 1981, ranged from 1.29 Mg haâ1 for unfertilized plots (CK) to 4.71 Mg haâ1 for plots that received manure (M) annually with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers (MNP). Corn yields for the 6 years, starting in 1979, averaged 2.29 and 5.61 Mg haâ1 for the same respective treatments. Whether the years were dry, normal or wet, average grain yields and WUEs for both crops were consistently highest in the MNP and lowest in the CK treatment, and were always lower in the N than in the M treatment and in all others treatments that received N along with P fertilizers. More importantly, WUEs for MNP and for straw along with N annually and P every second year (SNP) were always higher than the other fertilized treatments in dry years. Compared to yield data, coefficients of variance (CV) for WUEs were consistently low for all treatments, suggesting that WUEs were relatively stable from year to year. Yields and WUEs declined over time, except in the CK and MNP treatments for wheat. Declined yields of wheat for the N and M treatments were comparable, and the decline for the NP treatment was similar to that for the SNP treatment. Likewise, corn yields and WUEs declined for all treatments. Grain yields were significantly correlated with ET, with slopes ranging from 0.5 to 1.27 kg mâ3 for wheat and from 1.15 to 2.03 kg mâ3 for corn. Balanced fertilization and long-term addition of organic material to soil should be encouraged in this region to maximize the use of stored soil water, arrest grain yields decline, and ensure sustainable productivity using this intensive cereal cropping system.
Keywords
Related Topics
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Agronomy and Crop Science
Authors
Tinglu Fan, Shuying Wang, Tang Xiaoming, Junjie Luo, Bob A. Stewart, Yufeng Gao,