The knowledge and technologies to achieve both high yield and high N‐use efficiency in northern China already existed; however, there has been little progress in their implementation. We hypothesized that their adoption could be improved by offering farmers training programs (TPs, two trainings a year) and organizational and training programs (OTPs, besides training, which also provide in‐ field guidance and the cooperative purchase of seeds and fertilizers by groups of smallholder farmers.). In this study we evaluated maize (Zea mays L.) yield, N application rates, N‐use efficiency (partial factor productivity), net economic gains (defined as the difference between economic return of maize and N fertilizer cost), and technology adoption rate by farmers in a county who were assigned to TP and OTP groups vs. those following conventional farming practices (FPs) during the years 2009 to 2013. For TP and OTP groups of 1668 farmers, maize yield increased significantly by 10 and 18%, respectively, compared with the FP group, as did N‐use efficiency (22 and 37%, respectively). This led to significant increase in economic gains of 11 and 20%, in the TP and OTP groups, respectively. The adoption rate of formulated fertilizers, maize hybrid cultivars, and optimized planting density differed significantly between the FP (31, 52, and 43%, respectively), TP (57, 56, and 65%, respectively), and OTP (83, 90, and 78%, respectively) groups. These results demonstrate that innovation and agronomic participatory approaches are essential to improvement of both yield and N‐use efficiency in smallholder agriculture in China.Core Ideas Maize yield and N‐use efficiency was significantly increased by offering farmer training program and organizational and training program. Adoption rate of the technology package was improved by farmers who attended the training program and the organizational and training program. These results demonstrated that innovation and participatory approaches in agronomic and management practices are essential to improve both grain yield and N‐use efficiency in the smallholder agriculture.

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Colloidal quantum dot (CQD)–based photodetectors are promising alternatives to bulk semiconductor-based detectors to be monolithically integrated with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor readout integrated circuits avoiding high-cost epitaxial growth methods and complicated flip-bonding processes. To date, photovoltaic (PV) single-pixel detectors have led to the best performance with background-limit infrared photodetection performance. However, the nonuniform and uncontrollable doping methods and complex device configuration restrict the focal plane array (FPA) imagers to operate in PV mode. Here, we propose a controllable in situ electric field–activated doping method to construct lateral p-n junctions in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) mercury telluride (HgTe) CQD–based photodetectors with a simple planar configuration. The planar p-n junction FPA imagers with 640 × 512 pixels (15-μm pixel pitch) are fabricated and exhibit substantially improved performance compared with photoconductor imagers before activation. High-resolution SWIR infrared imaging is demonstrated with great potential for various applications including semiconductor inspection, food safety, and chemical analysis.

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