Net energy yield and carbon footprint of summer corn under different N fertilizer rates in the North China Plain
WANG Zhan-biao, WEN Xin-ya, ZHANG Hai-lin, LU Xiao-hong, CHEN Fu (1Department of Plant Breeding Genetics, University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan 2National Agricultural University La Molina (UNALM), Lima 12, Peru 3USDA ARS Corn Host Plant Resistance Research Unit, P.O. Box 9555, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA 4Crop Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, P.R.China 5Department of Crop Science, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 34, AlKhoud 123,Oman 6Department of Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SSGW, Warsaw 02-766, Poland 7Social Sciences Research Institute, National Agriculture Research Council, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan)
Excessive use of N fertilizer in intensive agriculture can increase crop yield and at the same time cause high carbon (C) emissions. This study was conducted to determine optimized N fertilizer application for high grain yield and lower C emissions in summer corn (Zea mays L.). A field experiment, including 0 (N0), 75 (N75), 150 (N150), 225 (N225), and 300 (N300) kg N ha–1 treatments, was carried out during 2010–2012 in the North China Plain (NCP). The results showed that grain yield, input energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and carbon footprint (CF) were all increased with the increase of N rate, except net energy yield (NEY). The treatment of N225 had the highest grain yield (10 364.7 kg ha–1) and NEY (6.8%), but the CF (0.25) was lower than that of N300, which indicates that a rate of 225 kg N ha–1 can be optimal for summer corn in NCP. Comparing GHG emision compontents, N fertilizer (0–51.1%) was the highest and followed by electricity for irrigation (19.73–49.35%). We conclude that optimazing N fertilizer application rate and reducing electricity for irrigation are the two key measures to increase crop yield, improve energy efficiency and decrease GHG emissions in corn production.
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