Abstract

With increasing demand for sustainable production, the need to effectively utilise site-based resources increases. One such resource is the remaining crop residues, both above and below ground, after harvest. In order to assess the magnitude of this resource, this study determined the plant nutrient contribution of residues from 17 different crops in seven different regions of Slovakia over a nine-year period. The soil profile 0.0-0.3m was taken into account at belowground residues sampling. The results showed that winter rape, mustard, corn maize, triticale, winter rye with straw and sunflower left the most residues, exceeding 8 tons of dry biomass per hectare. Root crops (sugar beet, potatoes) and peas left less than 3 tons of residual dry biomass per hectare. Using these data, the nutrient potential coefficient, i.e. the amount of nutrients left by production of one ton of the main product was calculated by polynomial regression. With these coefficients and the known yield of a given crop, it was possible to calculate how much nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium each crop leaves in the soil after harvest. It was found that the amount of nitrogen left ranged from 20 to 132kg, phosphorus from 2 to 24kg and potassium from 13 to 218kg per hectare. This has to be taken into account when calculating the fertiliser requirement of the subsequent crop in order to achieve better resource utilisation, thereby reducing the risk of eutrophication and improving farm profits by reducing expenditure on fertiliser.

Keywords

Aboveground residues; belowground residues; fertiliser requirement; nutrient potential coefficient; resource efficiency

Published in

Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Soil and Plant Science
2018, Volume: 68, number: 4, pages: 358-366
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

SLU Authors

• Strålenhielm, Anna

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Soil Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09064710.2017.1406134

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/94350