Abstract
The main reason for the development of the yield gap in crop production is the inefficient management of nitrogen (N). The nitrogen gap (NG) cannot be ameliorated without an indication and quantification of soil characteristics that limit N uptake by a crop plant. The insufficient supply of N to a plant during its cardinal stages of yield formation is a result of two major-variabilities. The first is spatial variability in the soil characteristics responsible for water supply to a plant, also serving as a nutrient carrier. The second is a vertical variability in soil factors, decisive for pools of available nutrients, and their in-season accessibility to the grown crop. The long-term strategy for NG cover should focus first on soil characteristics (humus stock, pH, nutrient content) responsible for water storage and its availability to the currently grown plant. Diagnostics of plant nutrient availability should deliver data on their contents both in the topsoil and subsoil. The combined use of both classical diagnostic tools and spectral imagery is a way to divide a single field into units, differing in productivity. Remote-sensing techniques offer a broad number of tools to define the in-season crop canopy requirement for fertilizer N in homogenous field units.
Highlights
Food Gap and Sustainable Intensification of AgricultureThe global human population, depending on the scenario, will reach 9–10 billion in. 2050
This twin objective can be achieved if solutions strictly oriented towards amelioration of the yield gap are put into agricultural practice, which will involve a reliance on increasing efficient nitrogen use
This gap can be filled by a synchronization of the demand of a grown plant for nutrients, driven by nitrogen applied in the required nitrogen fertilizers (Nf) dose and at the right time
Summary
The global human population, depending on the scenario, will reach 9–10 billion in. 2050. The first is high-tech intensification, based on highly productive cultivars of main crop plants, and the efficient use of mineral fertilizers and other agro-chemicals This strategy has been responsible for about 34 of the global food production increase in the last 85 years. Its realization is a prerequisite for decreasing the pressure of losses of its active forms to the local and, as a consequence to the global environment These twin objectives can be successfully realized, provided there is a recognition and a simultaneous amelioration of factors constraining the productivity of nitrogen both in the critical stages of yield formation by the currently grown crop, and resulting from the spatial variability of its supply to plants
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