Field monitoring reveals scope to reduce environmental impact of ware potato cultivation in the Netherlands without compromising yield

Context: Intensification of arable farming in Northwest Europe has led to high yields. However, inadequate use of external inputs such as nutrients, irrigation water and crop protection products has contributed to several environmental problems, such as nitrate leaching and losses of crop protection products. There is a need to reduce environmental losses and contribute to a more circular and sustainable agriculture in Northwest Europe. Objective: Here, we take ware potato production in the Netherlands as an example cropping system to assess if there is scope to reduce input levels and environ... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Ravensbergen, Arie Pieter Paulus
van Ittersum, Martin K.
Hijbeek, Renske
Kempenaar, Corné
Reidsma, Pytrik
Dokumenttyp: article/Letter to editor
Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
Schlagwörter: Environmental impact / On-farm observations / Resource use efficiency / Solanum tuberosum / Yield response
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29206166
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/field-monitoring-reveals-scope-to-reduce-environmental-impact-of-

Context: Intensification of arable farming in Northwest Europe has led to high yields. However, inadequate use of external inputs such as nutrients, irrigation water and crop protection products has contributed to several environmental problems, such as nitrate leaching and losses of crop protection products. There is a need to reduce environmental losses and contribute to a more circular and sustainable agriculture in Northwest Europe. Objective: Here, we take ware potato production in the Netherlands as an example cropping system to assess if there is scope to reduce input levels and environmental impact of nutrient, water and crop protection product use without compromising yield. Methods: We determined variability in use and use efficiency of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and pesticides as well as water productivity (WP) and yields of 96 on-farm ware potato fields in the Netherlands, on both clay and sandy soils. In addition, we assessed if relatively high performance could be achieved on multiple environmental indicators simultaneously. Results and conclusions: Average N surplus was 265 kg N ha−1 on clay soils and 139 kg N ha−1 on sandy soils and varied among fields by a factor three. Phosphorus and K input exceeded P and K output on clay soils by 33 and 105 kg ha−1, respectively, while on sandy soils P and K balances were close to zero. Mean WP was 43 kg dry matter (DM) mm−1 ha−1 and ranged from 30 to 60 kg DM mm−1 ha−1 for both soil types. In terms of crop protection product use, lowest and highest use differed by a factor four. Unexpectedly, yields did not increase with higher input rates, suggesting that lower input rates are sufficient to obtain current yields. Consequently, input rates were the most important drivers to explain variability in resource use efficiency and environmental impacts. At the same time, a comparison across multiple indicators simultaneously showed that it was possible to achieve relatively high yields with relatively low N surplus, high WP, and low crop protection ...