Abstract
Differences in crop yield between different fields in the same region have existed for a long time. Methods for improving the productivity of low-yield fields are a hot topic in large-scale agriculture. This experiment was carried out in potato planting farmland and at a potato experimental station in the Loess Plateau in China to study the effects of soil moisture and soil nutrients on potato yield potential and yield gap. The relationships between potato yield and soil nutrient factors were analyzed using the grey correlation method. The grey correlation method is a new technique for performing prediction, relational analysis and decision-making in many areas. The results indicate that (1) the high-yield group at the potato experimental station (HE) was 72,678 kg/ha; the mean-yield group at the potato experimental station (ME) was 36,083 kg/ha; the high-yield group in the potato planting farmland (HF) was 34,259 kg/ha; and the mean-yield group in the potato planting farmland (MF) was 19,386 kg/ha. (2) The yield gap (YG1) between HF and MF was 14,873 kg/ha; the yield gap (YG2) between ME and the MF was 16,697 kg/ha; the yield gap (YG3) between HE and the MF was 53291 kg/ha. (3) The effects of soil moisture and nutrients on potato yield were ranked from large to small: soil available potassium content > soil nitrate nitrogen content > soil organic matter content > soil water content > soil available phosphorus content. The results of correlation analysis and grey correlation analysis showed that the available potassium had the strongest correlation with potato tuber yield. (4) The content of nitrate nitrogen was significantly correlated with the content of available potassium and available phosphorus, while the water content was significantly correlated with the content of organic matter. According to the influence of soil moisture and nutrients on the potato tuber yield, it is suggested that integrated water and fertilizer cultivation measures be implemented, and the input of potash fertilizer and nitrogen fertilizer be increased.
Highlights
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major traditionally cultivated food crops in the Loess Plateau of China, accounting for 36% of China’s total potato cultivation area [1]
There was an extremely significant negative correlation between yield and water content, organic matter and available potassium. These results indicated that the lower the content of soil water content, organic matter and available potassium, the more the potato absorbed during the growth process, and the higher the potato yield
The results of this study showed that the average yield of potatoes was 29,000 kg/ha, which was close to the yield data of this region collected by Xu et al [37] for many years, indicating that the potato yield in this region had been relatively stable over the years, and the change of potato planting measures and planting area of farmers was relatively small
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major traditionally cultivated food crops in the Loess Plateau of China, accounting for 36% of China’s total potato cultivation area [1]. The average yield per unit area of the three major grain crops used to be much higher than the world average level, and the planting area will continue a downward trend in the short term. The yield per unit area has basically not increased. The policy of reforestation in China over many years has led to a decrease in total cultivated area, so increasing potato yield per unit area is the main way of ensuring the stability of the grain yield [2,3]
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