Resilience of maize, wheat, and soybean cropping systems as affected by fertilization: Analysis of a long-term field network

Abstract

Elucidating how different fertilization treatments affect the resilience of farming systems and the environmental adaptability of agricultural crops is relevant to assess their efficacy as a strategy for minimizing yield fluctuations and supporting global food security. The aim of this work was to compare the effects of fertilization practices and to distinguish the effect of macronutrients on the resilience of maize, wheat, and soybean cropping systems. A long-term experiment involving the three crops and five fertilization treatments (control without fertilization, nitrogen and sulphur fertilization, phosphorus and sulfur fertilization, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur fertilization) was conducted for 19 years in the Pampean region (Argentina) that includes five study sites. The four combinations of nutrient additions increased crop yields in unfavorable environments, which indicates that even in adverse years, fertilization was a valid tool to sustain yield performance. The Finlay and Wilkinson regression slopes in maize and full-season soybean did not differ between fertilization treatments, which suggests that fertilization did not change crop adaptation to the environment and that the observed positive effect of fertilization in unfavorable environments was maintained along the environmental gradient. In contrast, wheat and double-cropped soybean were able to capitalize on the environmental conditions of favorable years, as shown by the progressive increases in yields as the environment became more favorable. Maize had the highest response to nitrogen, whereas wheat and double-cropped soybean exhibited the highest responses to phosphorus and sulfur, respectively. Our findings are useful to extract guidelines that may lead to greater resilience through fertilization management practices.