Parsons, David
- Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Potato field management in Europe is already optimized for high production and tuber quality; however, numerous environmental challenges remain if the industry is to achieve "green economy" targets, such as less resources utilized, and less nitrate leached to the environment. Strategic co-scheduling irrigation and nitrogen (N) fertilization might increase resource use efficiency while minimizing reactive losses such as nitrate leaching. This study aimed to quantify the combined effect of irrigation and N fertilization on potato production, growth, and resource use efficiencies. A field experiment was conducted from 2017 to 2019 on a coarse sandy soil in Denmark, with a drought event occurring in 2018. Full (Ifull, maximized), deficit (Idef, 70-80 % of Ifull) and low irrigation treatments (Ilow, minimized amount to keep crop survival), each under full (Nfull, maximized) and variable (Nvar, variable amount according to the crops' needs) N fertilization were applied. The analyses results show that Ilow limited potato growth under a drought-heat event; otherwise, potato growth was comparable between Ifull and Idef treatments, with 31-32 % higher irrigation efficiency (IE) under Idef than under Ifull. Nitrate leaching was variable and not significantly different among the treatments, being in general 9-13 % lower under Idef in absolute terms than under Ifull. Unexpectedly, outcomes from Nvar were statistically lower compared to those from Nfull. Radiation use efficiencies (RUEs) from Ilow and Nvar were significantly lower than from Ifull and Idef (14-19 %), and from Nfull (9-11 %). N use efficiencies (NUE) were comparable between N fertilization treatments but significantly different among different irrigation treatments. Overall, this study confirms that Idef is the best irrigation strategy. Future efforts should focus on developing improved approaches for detecting inseason crop N status and further quantifying N requirements, as well as promoting the co-scheduled management of irrigation and N fertilization. Remote sensing approaches have great potential to assist with this.
Keywords
Nitrogen; Irrigation; Co-scheduling; Potato; Nitrate leaching
Published in
European Journal of Agronomy
2026, volume: 172, article number: 127874
Publisher: ELSEVIER
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2025.127874
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/144451