Long-term effects of best management practices on crop yield and nitrogen surplus

Abstract

Inherent in the concept of good agricultural practice (BMP) is that it improves resource use efficiency, mitigates environmental impact or increases farm profitability. However, it is usually impossible to achieve all the objectives, and trade-offs need to be accepted, such as a reduction in productivity together with a reduction in costs or an increase of soil organic matter. A European FP7 project, Catch-C (http://www.catch-c.eu) analyses the effects that different management practices have on productivity, mitigation of climate change and chemical, physical and biological soil fertility, based on simple indicators. Such indicators were collected from international literature, national scientific or technical journals, or grey literature that dealt with long-term field trials in Europe. We collected and analysed data from more than 350 experiments. This paper presents the overall results of the effects of a series of BMP have on crop productivity, soil nitrogen (N) uptake, N use efficiency end N balance. Important interactions with soil and climate types, crop and duration of the experiment were noticed for most BMPs. Rotations, also including double cropping, were among practices with more positive effects of productivity and N indicators. A slight reduction of yield counteracted benefits to soil quality and to climate change mitigation of minimum and no tillage, and of organic fertilisers.

European long‐term field experiments: knowledge gained about alternative management practices

“…Zavattaro et al . () used the same data set to show that the highest increases were reported mainly from Eastern Europe; from crops such as maize, barley or minor cereals; and from soils that were other than silty. The choice of the green manure crop should therefore be a tailor‐made decision, to fit local conditions of field and crop rotation.…”

“…Moreover, incorporating crop residues decreased the yields significantly which, according to Zavattaro et al . (), may merely reflect the highly variable data. The net negative impact here was largely attributed to two experiments in Slovenia with strongly negative RRs (Zavattaro et al ., ).…”

Effective carbon sequestration in Italian agricultural soils by in situ polymerization of soil organic matter under biomimetic photocatalysis

“…This indicates that such an in situ sequestration technology is not only effective towards SOC sequestration, but it also conserves the full plant nutrition capacity of soil and its potential crop productivity. Conversely, the NT and RT practices, aimed to increase carbon sequestration by reducing the bio‐oxidation of SOM, are reported to limit the mineralization of plant nutrients in soils and result in lower crop yields (Pittelkow, ; Salem, Valero Ubierna, Muñoz‐García, Gil Rodríguez, & Silva, ; Zavattaro et al, ).…”

“…Conversely, the NT and RT practices, aimed to increase carbon sequestration by reducing the bio-oxidation of SOM, are reported to limit the mineralization of plant nutrients in soils and result in lower crop yields (Pittelkow, 2015;Salem, Valero Ubierna, Muñoz-García, Gil Rodríguez, & Silva, 2015;Zavattaro et al, 2015).…”

Development of an Agricultural Primary Productivity Decision Support Model: A Case Study in France

“…In order to confirm a positive or negative effect of a management practice on primary productivity, longterm experiments can function as living laboratories (Johnston and Poulton, 2018;Sandén et al, 2018). Zavattaro et al (2015) observed slight yield reductions following application of organic amendments, including farmyard manure and incorporation of crop residues, most likely due to N immobilization. The same authors also showed that, beyond management, the interplay between climate, soil type, and duration of management plays a role.…”