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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2025, Vol. 24 Issue (10): 3789-3802    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2024.03.026
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Optimizing tillage and fertilization practices to improve the carbon footprint and energy efficiency of wheat–maize cropping systems

Kun Han1, 2, Xinzhu Li2, Liang Jia2, Dazhao Yu2, Wenhua Xu2, Hongkun Chen3, Tao Song4, Peng Liu1#

1 National Key Laboratory for Crop Biology/Key Laboratory for Crop Water Physiology and Drought-tolerance Germplasm Improvement, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China

2 Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Linyi 276000, China

3 Heze Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Heze 274000, China

4 Qingyuan Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Qingyuan 511500, China 

 Highlights 
Subsoiling rotary tillage (SRT) optimizes C footprint (CF) and energy use.
Hybrid fertilizer (HF) reduces CF and energy efficiency.
SRT+HF has the best overall performance for crop production, CF and energy use.  
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摘要  
为了促进农业的绿色可持续发展和高效生产,耕作方式和施肥需要进一步优化。本研究进行了3年的大田试验来评估耕作方式和施肥对华北平原小麦-玉米种植体系碳足迹(CF)和能量效率的影响。耕作方式为免耕(NT)、常规耕作(CT)、旋耕(RT)和深松旋耕(SRT);施肥方式为无机肥(IF)和有机无机混合肥(HF)。结果表明,最主要的能量投入和温室气体(GHG)排放来源于肥料和燃料。在同一施肥方式下,耕作方式对小麦和玉米的产量、利润、CF、能量利用效率(EUE)或能量生产力(EP)的影响趋势如下:SRT>RT>CT>NT。在同一耕作条件下,和IF处理相比,HF的能耗较高,温室气体排放和CF较低,而产量和效益较高。总之,不同强度的耕作方式比NT更好,RT和SRT比CT更好。施肥方式中HF的综合性能更好。SRT结合HF能显著降低CF并增加EUE,提高可持续性能。耕作方式和施肥的优化有利于缓解粮食安全压力、能源危机和生态安全威胁。


Abstract  
To make agricultural systems sustainable in terms of their greenness and efficiency, optimizing the tillage and fertilization practices is essential.  To assess the effects of tilling and fertilization practices in wheat–maize cropping systems, a three-year field experiment was designed to quantify the carbon footprint (CF) and energy efficiency of the cropping systems in the North China Plain.  The study parameters included four tillage practices (no tillage (NT), conventional tillage (CT), rotary tillage (RT), and subsoiling rotary tillage (SRT)) and two fertilizer regimes (inorganic fertilizer (IF) and hybrid fertilizer with organic and inorganic components (HF)).  The results indicated that the most prominent energy inputs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be ascribed to the use of fertilizers and fuel consumption.  Under the same fertilization regime, ranking the tillage patterns with respect to the value of the crop yield, profit, CF, energy use efficiency (EUE) or energy productivity (EP) for either wheat or maize always gave the same sequence of SRT>RT>CT>NT.  For the same tillage, the energy consumption associated with HF was higher than IF, but its GHG emissions and CF were lower while the yield and profit were higher.  In terms of overall performance, tilling is more beneficial than NT, and reduced tillage practices (RT and SRT) are more beneficial than CT.  The fertilization regime with the best overall performance was HF.  Combining SRT with HF has significant potential for reducing CF and increasing EUE, thereby improving sustainability.  Adopting measures that promote these optimizations can help to overcome the challenges posed by a lack of food security, energy crises and ecological stress.  
Keywords:  reduced tillage       organic fertilizer        greenhouse gases        C footprint        energy use efficiency  
Received: 16 October 2023   Online: 06 March 2024   Accepted: 01 February 2024
Fund: This study was supported by research grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2020MC092), the Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province, China (2019TSCYCX-33), and the Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province, China (LJNY202025).  
About author:  Kun Han, E-mail: hankun@sdau.edu.cn; #Correspondence Peng Liu, Tel/Fax: +86-538-8242653, E-mail: liupengsdau@126.com

Cite this article: 

Kun Han, Xinzhu Li, Liang Jia, Dazhao Yu, Wenhua Xu, Hongkun Chen, Tao Song, Peng Liu. 2025. Optimizing tillage and fertilization practices to improve the carbon footprint and energy efficiency of wheat–maize cropping systems. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 24(10): 3789-3802.

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