The scientist told how to improve the productivity of wheat
20 million tonnes of nitrogen in the world are used as fertilizers, of which 60% are in the production of grain. At the same time, according to FAO 2016, nitrogen efficiency does not exceed 33%. At some stage, the wheat stops responding to the increase in nitrogen.
The largest wheat harvest in Ukraine was received in 2009 – 13.2 tonnes out of 136 hectares, it was the “Favoritka” variety. In recent years, the profitability of wheat cultivation has fallen to almost zero. This was stated by Victor Schwartau, Head of the Department of Plant Nutrition at the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, NAS of Ukraine, during the VIII Kyiv Agrochemical Forum. The main factor for increasing wheat yield is nitrogen efficiency. And the basis for efficient use of batteries is soil acidity. The bottleneck is always phosphorus, there is only a narrow pH range in which the absorption of this element is most productive. When moving to another pH range, there is a dramatic change in efficiency, not only of phosphorus, but of other elements. The main trend of high productivity of cereals is nitrogen.
“We are used to the fact that this is the main thing, it is the main means, and in fact, nothing else in the Ukrainian food system is considered due to economic factors. However, modern short-stemmed wheat varieties are insensitive to increasing doses of mineral fertilizers. “It doesn’t fit into the textbooks. And so far, we are trying to improve the productivity of grain spikes by increasing the doses of nitrogen. This is the path to nowhere”, the scientist stressed.
