Managing soils and crops for sustainable agricultural intensification in coastal saline zones

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural intensification to ensure global food security requires increases in both crop yields and nitrogen (N) productivity. Together, these requirements represent a considerable challenge, especially in saline regions where the high soil sodium (Na+) content limits crop growth. An integrated soil and crop management system (ISCM) may be more successful than procedures aimed at improving only soil quality (ISM) or crop management (ICM), or current local farmers’ practice for achieving sustainable intensification in coastal saline zones. In this study, we tested different management alternatives for their ability to improve soil quality, agronomic feasibility, and affordability over four harvests in a 2‐yr wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–maize (Zea mays L.) rotation system in China. The ISM treatment with added cow manure and flue gas desulfurization gypsum reduced both Na+ content and pH in the subsoil, thereby improving grain yields and N productivity. The ICM treatment (i.e., optimized plant density and N fertilizer management) also increased crop yields and N productivity. The ISCM treatment integrated procedures of the ICM and ISM treatments to achieve the best agronomic benefit by increasing yields of wheat and maize by 25.3 and 30.8%, respectively, and N productivity by 109 and 97.6%, respectively, while simultaneously improving soil quality by increasing both calcium ion (Ca2+) and soil organic carbon content, and decreasing Na+ and pH in the subsoil. All three management alternatives increased economic benefits, and the ICM treatment was most valuable over the short term.

Organic residues and their impact on soil health, crop production and sustainable agriculture: A review including bibliographic analysis

“…Their results showed that the cattle manure treatment resulted in better rice yield over other organic waste such as rice straw, poultry manure, sugarcane bagasse and conventional inorganic fertilizer. Adding cattle manure to the soil may replace Na + (which is absorbed into soil colloids) with Ca 2+ , which, in turn, decreases soil salinity and increases Na + leaching to deeper soil layers (Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Maize productivity response to combined tillage and mulching in coastal saline zones

“…This finding was mainly attributable to ear numbers per unit area, TKW, and biomass accumulation, particularly after anthesis (Table 2; Figure 1). These effects can be explained by the reduction of soil salinity, which led to greater salt drainage from the root zone (Haque et al., 2018; X. Wang et al., 2018), followed by enhanced maize growth and yield formation (Dong, Yang, Zhang, et al., 2018; Farooq et al., 2015; J. Zhang et al., 2020). Previous studies have indicated that high ear density is a key parameter for high grain yield (Huang et al., 2019), and biomass accumulation from silking to maturity determines grain weight and grain yield (Srivastava et al., 2018; J. Zhang, Jiang, Xue, et al., 2019).…”

Sub‐soil plastic film mulch promotes the growth and yield improvement of winter wheat in coastal saline–alkali soil

“…The negative effects of environmental problems, such as soil salinization and drought stress, on crop growth and development are gradually increasing, which requires more scientific attention (Bai et al., 2018; Panwar et al., 2019; Sallam et al., 2019; Zelm et al., 2020). Without the premise of not changing the existing structure of cultivated land, increasing grain production in coastal saline–alkali areas with low soil fertility is an effective way to solve the problem of food security (Liu et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2023). Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) has a global planting area of approximately 240 million ha and is the staple food crop for 40% of the world's population (Bakhsh et al., 2019).…”