Recent Advances in Agronomic Measures for High-Yield Cultivation of Maize

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2022) | Viewed by 4073

Special Issue Editor

College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: maize; plastic film coverage; stress tolerance; plant nutrition; soil temperature; adversity physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

With the rapid increase in global population, food shortages have become a major area of concern for all countries. In the case of a shortage of arable land, increasing the yield of crops per unit area is an important way to solve the world's food problems. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the main staple crops and has the highest grain yield per unit area in the world. In addition, maize has a high yield potential. Therefore, increasing the yield of maize through appropriate cultivation and agronomic techniques is of great significance to solving the world’s food shortage problem. 

This Special Issue focuses on the recent advances in agronomic measures for the high-yield cultivation of maize. Original research articles about these topics will be accepted.

Dr. Haidong Lu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • maize
  • high yield
  • cultivation techniques
  • farming methods
  • water and fertilizer utilization efficiency
  • mechanism of increasing production

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4044 KiB  
Article
Effects of Biodegradable Film and Polyethylene Film Residues on Soil Moisture and Maize Productivity in Dryland
by Guixin Zhang, Shibo Zhang, Zhenqing Xia, Mengke Wu, Jingxuan Bai and Haidong Lu
Agriculture 2023, 13(2), 332; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13020332 - 29 Jan 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1577
Abstract
With the dramatic increased use of agricultural film, the potential environmental risks associated with it have been receiving widespread attention. Biodegradable film (BF) is considered an alternative to conventional polyethylene film (PF), but its feasibility to replace PF needs to be verified. Thus, [...] Read more.
With the dramatic increased use of agricultural film, the potential environmental risks associated with it have been receiving widespread attention. Biodegradable film (BF) is considered an alternative to conventional polyethylene film (PF), but its feasibility to replace PF needs to be verified. Thus, we conducted a two-year field experiment in the Loess Plateau region of China, exploring the effects of residual biodegradable film and polyethylene film (RBF and RPF) on soil moisture, maize root, and productivity at different residual levels (75 kg ha−1, 150 kg ha−1 and 300 kg ha−1). Regardless of the residual film type, soil water content (SWC), root length density (RLD), and root surface area density (RSD) all decreased with increasing residual level; this phenomenon observed significant differences when the residual level exceeded 150 kg ha−1. Different organs (root and shoot) of maize differed in their sensitivity and sensitivity period to residual film. The two-year degradation rate of RBF was 59.24%, which was higher than that of RPF. Compared to the RPF treatments, the SWC, RLD, RSD, biomass, and root–shoot ratio of the RBF treatments were closer to the no residual film treatment in the second maize growing season. After the two-year experiment, compared to the grain yield, water use efficiency, and precipitation use efficiency of the RPF treatments, that of the RBF treatments increased 0.41–6.24%, 0.12–4.44%, and 0.41–06.24%. The application of BF to replace PF is beneficial to sustainable maize production in dryland, but finding efficient methods to recycle the residual film remains a priority. Full article
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17 pages, 1559 KiB  
Article
Assessing Crop and Corn Silage Profile in Beef Cattle Farms in Southern Brazil: Ten Years’ Results
by Egon Henrique Horst and Mikael Neumann
Agriculture 2022, 12(8), 1200; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12081200 - 11 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1973
Abstract
This work aimed to investigate corn crop management practices and the quality of corn silage in beef cattle farms in southern Brazil during ten years of sampling. A total of 63 farms, located in 16 municipalities in Paraná state, Brazil, participated in the [...] Read more.
This work aimed to investigate corn crop management practices and the quality of corn silage in beef cattle farms in southern Brazil during ten years of sampling. A total of 63 farms, located in 16 municipalities in Paraná state, Brazil, participated in the study of corn crop characterization, while the corn silages were obtained from 65 farms located in 18 municipalities in the same state. A total of 49 corn hybrids were identified, with a preference for early cycle hybrids (E) and semi-hard grain type (SH). The dataset was obtained between 2011 and 2020, and the average cycle of the identified hybrids ranged from 150 ± 14 days in 2012 to 134 ± 12 days in 2019, with a maximum amplitude of 182 days in 2012 and a minimum of 99 days in 2019 and 2020. The DM content of the plant at harvest ranged from 40.1% to 45.9% between the average of the years evaluated, with an average dry biomass yield of 25 t ha−1. The analyzed silages had average levels of aNDF and ADF within the expectation (45.6% and 26.2%, respectively) but with CP content below that commonly observed in corn silages (6.9%) due to the stage of advanced maturity at harvest. Based on this monitoring, we emphasize that the production of corn silage on beef cattle farms in southern Brazil faces specific challenges, which include outsourcing the provision of harvesting services. Above all, it was clear that there were no significant advances in the results obtained over ten years, raising concerns about interventions in the process. Full article
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