As the saying goes, 'A single flower in a crop depends entirely on its fertilizer.'. The important role of fertilizers as the "food" of grains is self-evident. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in the 1960s and 1980s, developing countries increased crop yields by 55% -57% through fertilization. For China, which has a large population, the significance of fertilizers is even greater.
However, due to the problems caused by excessive and unreasonable use of fertilizers, the negative impacts have been overly magnified, leading to many misunderstandings about the use of fertilizers. Just like a series of health problems such as hypertension and high blood sugar caused by unreasonable diet and overnutrition, incorrect methods such as excessive use of fertilizers, unreasonable nutrient matching, and extensive application can also have a negative impact on food security.
Facing negative issues requires scientific analysis, correct understanding, and rational treatment.
Research has shown that the loss of nutrients from fertilizers contributes 11.2% and 25.7% to agricultural nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, respectively. In fact, most of the phosphorus and potassium elements that have not been absorbed by the current season's crops after the application of fertilizers will still remain in the soil and be utilized by the next season's crops. One important technology of scientific fertilization is to focus on reusing residual fertilizer nutrients in the soil, striving to improve the efficiency of nutrient recycling.
The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the strategy of rural revitalization, requiring "to ensure national food security and firmly put the Chinese people's jobs in their own hands". New breakthroughs must be made in the new era. In terms of the development of soil and fertilizer technology, the main focus is on the green development of ecological agriculture, with the key task of protecting and managing the quality of arable land, and the development goal is to improve the quality of arable land. These are the key issues that all agricultural technicians must focus on addressing in their future work. To achieve comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable development of society and achieve the goals of high-quality, efficient, and safe agriculture, it is necessary to fully tap into the production potential of soil resources, seek the best ways and measures to improve land carrying capacity, and increase fertilizer utilization efficiency.
Currently, China's agricultural production is facing a dual pressure of price "ceiling" and cost "floor". Only by transforming production methods and reducing excessive agricultural material costs can we achieve agricultural quality and efficiency improvement, promote fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement, which is a key measure for agricultural structural adjustment, transformation, and green development. Therefore, efforts must be made in the four aspects of refinement, improvement, and replacement to protect and enhance the quality of arable land.
One is to continuously promote precise fertilization. Based on the soil conditions, crop yield potential, and comprehensive nutrient management requirements of different regions, reasonable fertilization limit standards should be formulated for each region and crop unit area. Practice has shown that precise fertilization can achieve a weight loss of 5kg per mu of grain crops and a yield increase of 5% to 8%. However, due to the diversity of soil types and complex planting systems, achieving precise fertilization on each plot is a long-term task that requires comprehensive support from technology, policies, and systems.
The second is to adjust the structure of fertilizer use. In the past, universal compound fertilizers were mainly used. This type of product can meet basic production requirements, but it is clearly not the optimal product. To achieve this, it is necessary to optimize the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, enhance the synergistic effect of the combination of macroelements and trace elements, and make soil crop nutrition more efficient. At the same time, it is necessary to develop suitable and efficient solutions for different soil conditions and crop needs
Fertilizer products and ensure that these products can be used in the field; For example, in shrimp rice intercropping, rice needs to reduce nitrogen, adjust phosphorus, stabilize potassium, and supplement micro amounts. This requires fertilizers to meet agricultural needs and upgrade products, fertilizer marketing systems to provide genuine and cost-effective services to users, and deep innovation and localization technologies in the agricultural field.
The third is to improve the production and fertilization methods. At present, due to labor shortage, unreasonable fertilization phenomena such as surface application and spreading of fertilizers still exist. To promote the use of suitable fertilization equipment and shift the fertilization method, surface application of nitrogen fertilizer can result in nutrient volatilization exceeding 20%, while deep application of soil cover can reduce it to less than 5%. Facility vegetables can gradually be changed to integrated water and fertilizer, foliar spraying, etc. The change in fertilization methods requires close coordination between fertilizer products, agricultural machinery, agronomy, and facilities, which is a systematic project that requires collaborative research and integrated promotion
The fourth is partial substitution of organic fertilizers. The nutrients contained in organic fertilizers are roughly equivalent to the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium nutrients provided by chemical fertilizers. At present, the main crop straw still accounts for 85%, but the quality is not high; The nutrient return rate in organic fertilizers is mainly in vegetable crops. In the long run, if organic fertilizer is not used in grain fields, it not only affects yield, but also restricts the improvement of soil productivity. By making rational use of organic nutrient resources, especially replacing some chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers in fruits, facility vegetables, and tea, and promoting the combination of organic and inorganic fertilizers, it is possible to improve the basic soil fertility of cultivated land while achieving increased yield, efficiency, and quality.