Cereal yield gaps across Europe
2018
Schils, Rene | Olesen, Jurgen E. | Kersebaum, Kurt-Christian | Rijk, Bert | Oberforster, Michael | Kalyada, Valery | Khitrykau, Maksim | Gobin, Anne | Kirchev, Hristofor | Manolova, Vanya | Manolov, Ivan | Trnka, Mirek | Hlavinka, Petr | Palosuo, Taru | Peltonen-Sainio, Pirjo | Jauhiainen, Lauri | Lorgeou, Josiane | Marrou, Hélène | Danalatos, Nikos | Archontoulis, Sotirios | Fodor, Nandor | Spink, John | Roggero, Pier Paolo | Bassu, Simona | Pulina, Antonio | Seehusen, Till | Uhlen, Anne Kjersti | Zylowska, Katarzyna | Nierobca, Anna | Kozyra, Jerzy | Silva, Joao Vasco | Macas, Benvindo Martins | Coutinho, Jose | Ion, Viorel | Takáč, Jozef | Inés Mínguez, M. | Eckersten, Henrik | Levy, Lilia | Herrera, Juan Manuel | Hiltbrunner, Jurg | Kryvobok, Oleksii | Kryvoshein, Oleksandr | Sylvester-Bradley, Roger | Kindred, Daniel | Topp, Cairistiona F. E. | Boogaard, Hendrik | de Groot, Hugo | Lesschen, Jan Peter | van Bussel, Lenny | Wolf, Joost | Zijlstra, Mink | van Loon, Marloes P. | van Ittersum, Martin K. | Plant Production Systems Group ; Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen] (WUR) | Department of Agroecology ; Aarhus University [Aarhus] | Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung = Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) | Institute for sustainable Plant Production | National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) | Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) | Agricultural University [Plovdiv] | Mendel University in Brno (MENDELU) | Global Change Research Centre (CzechGlobe) | Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) | ARVALIS - Institut du végétal [Paris] | Fonctionnement et conduite des systèmes de culture tropicaux et méditerranéens (UMR SYSTEM) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier (CIHEAM-IAMM) ; Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)-Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro) | University of Thessaly | Department of Agronomy ; Purdue University [West Lafayette] | Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) | Teagasc Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc) | Università degli Studi di Sassari = University of Sassari [Sassari] (UNISS) | Norsk institutt for bioøkonomi=Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) | Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation (IUNG) | Plant Breeding Station ; Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) | University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine ; Partenaires INRAE | National Agricultural and Food Centre ; Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) | Department of Crop Production Ecology ; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) | Agroscope | Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI) | Agricultural Development and Advisory Service | Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) | Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen] (WUR) | strategic investment funds (IPOP) of Wageningen University Research ; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ; MACSUR under EU FACCE-JPI ; TempAg
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Europe accounts for around 20% of the global cereal production and is a net exporter of ca. 15% of that production. Increasing global demand for cereals justifies questions as to where and by how much Europe's production can be increased to meet future global market demands, and how much additional nitrogen (N) crops would require. The latter is important as environmental concern and legislation are equally important as production aims in Europe. Here, we used a country-by-country, bottom-up approach to establish statistical estimates of actual grain yield, and compare these to modelled estimates of potential yields for either irrigated or rainfed conditions. In this way, we identified the yield gaps and the opportunities for increased cereal production for wheat, barley and maize, which represent 90% of the cereals grown in Europe. The combined mean annual yield gap of wheat, barley, maize was 239 Mt, or 42% of the yield potential. The national yield gaps ranged between 10 and 70%, with small gaps in many north-western European countries, and large gaps in eastern and south-western Europe. Yield gaps for rainfed and irrigated maize were consistently lower than those of wheat and barley. If the yield gaps of maize, wheat and barley would be reduced from 42% to 20% of potential yields, this would increase annual cereal production by 128 Mt (39%). Potential for higher cereal production exists predominantly in Eastern Europe, and half of Europe's potential increase is located in Ukraine, Romania and Poland. Unlocking the identified potential for production growth requires a substantial increase of the crop N uptake of 4.8 Mt. Across Europe, the average N uptake gaps, to achieve 80% of the yield potential, were 87, 77 and 43 kg N ha(-1) for wheat, barley and maize, respectively. Emphasis on increasing the N use efficiency is necessary to minimize the need for additional N inputs. Whether yield gap reduction is desirable and feasible is a matter of balancing Europe's role in global food security, farm economic objectives and environmental targets.
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