title: Integrated soil-crop system management: reducing environmental risk while increasing crop productivity and improving nutrient use efficiency in China.
abstract: During the past 47 yr (1961-2007), Chinese cereal production has increased by 3.2-fold, successfully feeding 22% of the global human population with only 9% of the world's arable land, but at high environmental cost and resource consumption. Worse, crop production has been stagnant since 1996 while the population and demand for food continue to rise. New advances for sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be needed during the coming 50 yr to reduce environmental risk while increasing crop productivity and improving nutrient use efficiency. Here, we advocate and develop integrated soil-crop system management (ISSM). In this approach, the key points are (i) to take all possible soil quality improvement measures into consideration, (ii) to integrate the utilization of various nutrient resources and match nutrient supply to crop requirements, and (iii) to integrate soil and nutrient management with high-yielding cultivation systems. Recent field experiments have shed light on how ISSM can lead to significant increases in crop yields while increasing nutrient use efficiency and reducing environmental risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Nutrition, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. zhangfs@cau.edu.cn
authors.forename: Fusuo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhenling
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Mingsheng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Weifeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xinping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Rongfeng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D002681:China; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000191:economics / Q000254:growth & development*; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000254:growth & development*; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000191:economics; D005523:Food Supply; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012987:Soil
chemical_list: D005308:Fertilizers; D012987:Soil