Testing of the most widely available fertilizer advisory systems in field trials.

摘要

Data derived from long-term Hungarian field trials carried out between 1960 and 2000 has been used as the basis for the development of a new fertilizer advisory system by MTA Talajtani es Agrokemiai Kutatointezet (MTA TAKI), Budapest, and MTA Mezogazdagi Kutatointezet (MTA MGKI), Martonvasar, Hungary. This computerized system takes into account both cost and environmental considerations when assessing fertilizer options. The MTA TAKI-MTA MGKI system provides crop production specialists with a tool for determining how nutrient sources can be used most rationally and economically. Developers attempted to incorporate positive features of earlier advisory systems into the new system. A major strength o the MGA TAKI-MTA MGKI system is that it has been based on extensive field trials in Hungarian conditions, and incorporates findings published by plant nutrition specialists at many Hungarian universities and research institutes over a 40-year period. The aim was to ensure that the new system can provide recommendations regarding optimum fertilizer levels required to ensure production that is safe and achieves high yields and maximum economic returns. The advisory system provides producers with four different options for fertilizer application levels, namely: (1) the minimum level; (2) the "environmentally friendlyo level; (3) a "balancedo approach; and (4) the maximum plant nutrition level. In the context of a three-year programme financed by the World Phosphate Institute (IMPHOS), tests of the use of several different Hungarian fertilizer advisory systems in the production of autumn wheat, maize and spring barley crops in three typical Hungarian soils (brown forest, chernozem and meadow soils) have been carried out. The systems tested were the MTA TAKI-MTA MGKI four-level system, the Talajerogazdalkodas kkt integrated system, and the intensive system, developed by MEM NAK (Plant Protection and Agrochemistry Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Hungary). Results showed that the new MTA TAKI-MTA MGKI system accurately calculated appropriate fertilizer doses for all of these crops, and that economic returns from all types of crop production were maximized by using the new advisory system.