The Responses of Food Crops to Fertilization and Conservation Tillage

Dear Colleagues,

Enhancing the yield and quality of food crops is a long-standing, central challenge in agriculture, particularly in the context of growing global population demands and climate change. How to enhance the yield and quality of food crops while preserving ecosystems, increasing soil health, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become an urgent issue.

Fertilization and tillage are the two most vital agronomic practices, affecting crop yields, yield quality, and soil health. However, high crop yields have historically been achieved through the over-application of fertilizers and the over-tillage of the soil, resulting in wasted resources, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and disruptions to the ecological balance of the soil. Thus, there is a need for innovative fertilizer application strategies and tillage practices to improve resource utilization and crop yield and quality on a sustainable basis.

With the sustainable development of societies and agricultural production, agricultural systems are increasingly recognized as integrated systems involving trees, crops, and/or livestock. Therefore, investigating the response of food crops to fertilization and conservation tillage should focus not only on cropping systems, but also on agroforestry systems; in many areas, these are considered to be innovative, combining high productivity with ecosystem preservation and efficient resource use.

This Special Issue welcomes review and research articles that focus on fertilizer and tillage management practices, innovative approaches, and resource conservation technologies that can successfully increase system productivity in food crop-based cropping systems and agroforestry systems while reducing negative environmental impacts. Papers presenting new, comprehensive studies on various aspects, including food crop management, fertilization, yield, quality, resource utilization, the stress resistance physiology of crops, and integrated ecological effects, are welcome.

Dr. Zhaowen Mo
Guest Editor

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• food crop
• grain yield and quality
• crop physiology and ecology
• greenhouse gas emissions
• fertilization and tillage management
• agroforestry systems
• ecological effect