Comparison of production efficiency of the harvesting organs among field crops

Abstract

Abstract To investigate the growth efficiency of harvesting organs of rice, winter wheat, oat, barley, maize, sorghum, soybean, field bean, lupin, pea, adzuki bean, chick pea, peanut, sunflower, safflower, flax, rape, castor bean, cotton, and potato, the dry weight and respiratory rate of the harvesting organs were measured and the composition of crude chemical components was determined during maturation. 1. The experimental value of the growth efficiency was generally higher than the theoretical value for biochemical data (Vertregt and Penning de Vries 1987) except for safflower and castor bean.2. The difference between the experimental value and the theoretical value was especially large in soybean, peanut, safflower, rape, and castor bean, in which the lipid content was high, and cotton. Thus, as there was no clear relationship between the composition of the chemical components and the growth efficiency among the crops, it was difficult to estimate the conversion efficiencies for the production of each chemical component using a unit of glucose based on the experimental data. It is, therefore, suggested that reassimilation of respired CO2 or photosynthesis should be included to estimate the carbon balance in the harvesting organs.