TY - EJOU AU - Liu, Xiaotong AU - Bashir, Muhammad Amjad AU - Geng, Yucong AU - Raza, Qurat-Ul-Ain AU - Rehim, Abdur AU - Aon, Muhammad AU - Luo, Jianhang AU - Zhao, Ying AU - Zhang, Xuejun AU - Liu, Hongbin TI - Assessment of Nutrient Leaching Losses and Crop Uptake with Organic Fertilization, Water Saving Practices and Reduced Inorganic Fertilizer T2 - Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany PY - 2023 VL - 92 IS - 5 SN - 1851-5657 AB -

The increasing world population has forced excessive chemical fertilizer and irrigation to complete the global food demand, deteriorating the water quality and nutrient losses. Short-term studies do not compile the evidences; therefore, the study aimed to identify the effectiveness of reduced doses of inorganic fertilizer and water-saving practices, hence, a six-year experiment (2015–2020) was conducted in China to address the knowledge gap. The experimental treatments were: farmer accustomed fertilization used as control (525:180:30 kg NPK ha−1), fertilizer decrement (450:150:15 kg NPK ha−1), fertilizer decrement + water-saving irrigation (450:150:15 kg NPK ha−1), application of organic and inorganic fertilizer + water-saving irrigation (375:120:0 kg NPK ha−1 + 4.5 tones organic fertilizer ha−1), and application of controlled-release fertilizer (80:120:15 kg NPK ha−1). Each treatment was replicated thrice following a randomized complete block design. The results achieved herein showed that control has the highest losses in the six-year study for total nitrogen (225.97 mg L−1), total soluble nitrogen (121.58 mg L−1), nitrate nitrogen (0.93 mg L−1), total phosphorus (0.57 mg L−1), and total soluble phosphorus (0.57 mg L−1) respectively. Reduced fertilizer and water application improved crop nutrient uptake, nitrogen concentration was significantly enhanced with organic and inorganic fertilizer + water-saving irrigation, P concentration was increased with fertilizer decrement + water-saving irrigation, and K concentration was improved with fertilizer decrement + water-saving irrigation. Hence, this study concludes that reduced inorganic fertilizer dose combined with water-saving practices is significantly helpful in reducing nutrient leaching losses and improving nutrient uptake and water pollution. Further studies are needed to explore the impacts of reduced fertilization and water-saving irrigation on leaching losses. The benefits at different climatic conditions, soil types, and fertilizer types with application methods are also a research gap.

KW - Corn production; feeding system; water consumption efficiency; sustainable agriculture; water use DO - 10.32604/phyton.2023.026735