Improving resource productivity at a crop sequence level

OCTAVIO CAVIGLIA; ROBERTO RIZZALLI; JUAN PABLO MONZÓN; GARCIA, FERNANDO; MELCHIORI, RICARDO; MARTINEZ, JUAN JOSE; ANIBAL CERRUDO; ANDREA IRIGOYEN; BARBIERI PABLO ANDRÉS; VAN OSPAL,NATALIA; FERNANDO ANDRADE

FIELD CROPS RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019

0378-4290

The challenge to increase agricultural production with a minimum environmentalimpact requires to reach the maximum efficiency in the capture and use of resources such as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), water, and nitrogen (N). Such requisites are encompassed in the ecological intensification (EI) concept. The aims of this work were to evaluate at a crop sequence level: i) crops yields , ii) water and radiation productivity and its components, i.e. resource capture and resource use efficiency, and iii) partial factor productivity of applied N (PFPN), partial nutrient balance for N (PNB), N uptake and N utilization efficiency of a two-year, three-crop sequence (wheat [Triticum aestivum L. ]/soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] double crop ? maize [Zea mays L. ]) carried-out under EI principles in comparison with the same crop sequence under current farmer practices (FP) in two contrasting locations of the Argentinean Pampas, i.e. Paraná (-31°50′; -60°31′) at the northern Pampas and Balcarce (-37°45′, -58°18′) at the southern Pampas. Experiments were carried-outduring four consecutive years, covering two complete cycles of the crop sequence. For the accumulated grain production of the crop sequence, EI management outyielded FP from 13 to 42%, depending on environmental conditions. Maize yield accounted for most of the variation (41-64%) of the accumulated grain yield of crop sequence, whether in EI as in FP. Average grain yield differences between EI and FP treatments were 274 g m-2 for maize, 69 g m-2 for wheat and -2 g m-2 for soybean. Water and radiation productivities of the sequence were higher in EI than in FP (26% for water and 17% for radiation; P