Abstract
ObjectiveChina’s food production has increased 6-fold during the past half-century, thanks to increased yields resulting from the management intensification, accomplished through greater inputs of fertilizer, water, new crop strains, and other Green Revolution’s technologies. Yet, changes in underlying quality of soils and their effects on yield increase remain to be determined. Here, we provide a first attempt to quantify historical changes in inherent soil productivity and their contributions to the increase in yield.MethodsThe assessment was conducted based on data-set derived from 7410 on-farm trials, 8 long-term experiments and an inventory of soil organic matter concentrations of arable land.ResultsResults show that even without organic and inorganic fertilizer addition crop yield from on-farm trials conducted in the 2000s was significantly higher compared with those in the 1980s — the increase ranged from 0.73 to 1.76 Mg/ha for China’s major irrigated cereal-based cropping systems. The increase in on-farm yield in control plot since 1980s was due primarily to the enhancement of soil-related factors, and reflected inherent soil productivity improvement. The latter led to higher and stable yield with adoption of improved management practices, and contributed 43% to the increase in yield for wheat and 22% for maize in the north China, and, 31%, 35% and 22% for early and late rice in south China and for single rice crop in the Yangtze River Basin since 1980.ConclusionsThus, without an improvement in inherent soil productivity, the ‘Agricultural Miracle in China’ would not have happened. A comprehensive strategy of inherent soil productivity improvement in China, accomplished through combining engineering-based measures with biological-approaches, may be an important lesson for the developing world. We propose that advancing food security in 21st century for both China and other parts of world will depend on continuously improving inherent soil productivity.
Highlights
China, the world’s most populous country of 1.3 billion with a rapidly growing economy, faces a major challenge of achieving food security [1]
The results presented here are based on the analysis of three unique national data sets: (1) soil organic matter (SOM) and yields in plots without fertilizer and under best management practices (BMPs) for 1-2 year on-farm trials conducted during 1980s and 2000s respectively, (2) yields in fertilizer omission plots in typical longterm experiments (LTEs) across major irrigated cereal-based cropping systems in China, and (3) an inventory of SOM concentrations of arable land
The data show that increase in Yield–CK under onfarm conditions between 1980s and 2000s reflect primarily improvements in inherent soil productivity
Summary
The world’s most populous country of 1.3 billion with a rapidly growing economy, faces a major challenge of achieving food security [1]. Food demand in China impacts global food supply [2], and the worldwide use of natural resources. China’s agricultural production has witnessed a marked growth in the past half-century, creating the “Agricultural Miracle in China,” which feeds 20% of the world’s population on merely 7% of the global arable land while using only 5% of the planet’s renewable fresh water resources [1,3]. Few if any, studies exist to assess the impacts of changes in the underlying quality of soils under on-farm conditions on crop productivity growth in China
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
