Improving Phosphorus Use Efficiency and Optimizing Phosphorus Application Rates for Maize in the Northeast Plain of China for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Optimizing the phosphorus (P) application rate can increase grain yield while reducing both cost and environmental impact. However, optimal P rates vary substantially when different targets such as maximum yield or maximum economic benefit are considered. The present study used field experiment conducted at 36 experiments sites for maize to determine the impact of P application levels on grain yield, plant P uptake, and P agronomy efficiency (AEP), P-derived yield benefits and private profitability, and to evaluated the agronomically (AOPR), privately (POPR), and economically (EOPR) optimal P rate at a regional scale. Four treatments were compared: No P fertilizer (P0); P rate of 45–60 kg ha−1 (LP); P rate of 90–120 kg ha−1 (MP); P rate of 135–180 kg ha−1 (HP). P application more effectively increased grain yield, reaching a peak at MP treatment. The plant P uptake in HP treatment was 37.4% higher than that in P0. The relationship between P uptake by plants (y) and P application rate (x) can be described by the equation y = −0.0003x2 + 0.1266x + 31.1 (R2 = 0.309, p < 0.01). Furthermore, grain yield (y) and plant P uptake (x) across all treatments also showed a significant polynomial function (R2 = 0.787–0.846). The MP treatment led to highest improvements in P agronomic efficiency (AEP), P-derived yield benefits (BY) and private profitability (BP) compared with those in other treatments. In addition, the average agronomically (AOPR), privately (POPR), and economically optimal P rate (EOPR) in 36 experimental sites were suggested as 127.9 kg ha−1, 110.8 kg ha−1, and 114.4 kg ha−1, which ranged from 80.6 to 211.3 kg ha−1, 78.2 to 181.8 kg ha−1, and 82.6 to 151.6 kg ha−1, respectively. Economically optimal P application (EOPR) can be recommended, because EOPR significantly reduced P application compared with AOPR, and average economically optimal yield was slightly higher compared with the average yield in the MP treatment. This study was conducive in providing a more productive, use-effective, profitable, environment-friendly P fertilizer management strategy for supporting maximized production potential and environment sustainable development.

Site-specific responses of lowland rice to acidulated and calcined phosphate rock fertilizers in the Center-West region of Burkina Faso

“…Agronomic efficiency of the P fertilizer (AEP, kg grain kg -1 P) or an increased grain yield per kg P applied was calculated [36] as follows AEP kg=kg ð Þ ¼ ðGrain in fertilized treatment À Grain without fertilizationÞ Fertilizer P applied…”

“…The AEP or increased yield per unit of P applied represents the direct production impacts of an applied fertilizer [55], and is often used to evaluate optimum P management practices [36]. The AEP values of PAPRs were comparable to TSP and SSP in both NAS-D and Ramongo, and CBs showed a consistent performance in the NAS-D because of the reasons mentioned above (Fig 6).…”

Maize/soybean intercropping improve yield stability in red soil under different phosphate application rates in southwest China

“…Currently, the functional models used include one-dimensional quadratic model, linear platform model, exponential model and square root model, etc. The optimal fertilizer amount obtained has the advantage of high accuracy, and the economic fertilizer application amount, upper limit and lower limit of fertilization can be calculated (Chen et al 2014;Rosen et al 2014;Jiang et al 2019). In our study, with the increased of experimental years, cumulative effects of fertilizer P application on soil P availability and crop yield were supposed to be strengthened, resulting in the yield level decline at zero P supply, a yearly-increased yield gap between low and high P supply, and high P surplus at high P application rate (Liao et al 2021;Zhou et al 2023).…”

Can Industrial Integration Improve the Sustainability of Grain Security?

“…Starting from the fact of grain production in China, some scholars found that the insufficient utilization rate of grain production factors and the lack of scientific input led to unnecessary waste [10]. Those scholars also believe that optimizing grain production factors and improving the input efficiency of production factors are conducive to the overall improvement of grain production efficiency [11]. Most of these scholars conduct research from factors such as chemical fertilizers, labor, and land.…”