Sustainability improvement of grain productivity of beet crop rotations in the foreststeppe of the Central Blackearth region

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to identify the effect of various crop rotations and rates of application of mineral fertilizers on productivity of winter wheat and spring barley, the productivity of crop rotations and the economic efficiency of cultivating crops. The study was carried out in a stationary field trial of the FSBSI “Kursk FARC” on typical heavy loamy blackearth (chernozem) in 2015–2023. Agricultural crops were grown in three crop rotations: 1 – grainrow fallow (black fallow, winter wheat, sugar beets, maize for silage, barley); 2 – grain-row green manure fallow (green manure fallow, winter wheat, sugar beets, maize for silage, barley); 3 – crop rotation (horse-bean for grain, winter wheat, sugar beets, white lupine for grain, barley). During the trial there have been compared two contrasting levels of mineral fertilizer application N30Р30К30 and N52Р52К52 per hectare of crop rotation area. The non-marketable portion of the harvest of all crops was used as fertilizer. Agricultural technology was generally conventional for the area. There has been established that, under all weather conditions, the highest yield of winter wheat at a low background of fertilization (N30Р30К300 per hectare of crop rotation area) is produced in green manure fallow, and at a high background of fertilization (N52Р52К52 per hectare of crop rotation area) in black fallow. There was found that the most favorable conditions for cultivating barley were created when cultivating with white lupine for grain. Fertilization increase led to productivity increase of the grain crops, but, at the same time, to a production profitability decrease. There has been determined that productivity of crop rotations with fallow forecrops is 14 % higher compared to crop rotations with a legume forecrop (horse-bean for grain). According to calculations, on average over the years of study, the most profitable was the winter wheat cultivation in black fallow, and spring barley cultivation in white lupine for grain. At the same time, the indicator of production profitability level decreased with an increase in the rate of mineral fertilizing, which results in production costs’ increase.