Maize intensification in major production regions of the world: Evidence from a global multi-location study. T. Satyanarayana

1. Maize intensification in major production
regions of the world: Evidence from a
global multi-location study
T. Satyanarayana and Sudarshan Dutta (IPNI South Asia Program)
T. Scott Murrell and Luís Prochnow (IPNI Global Maize Program)
Kaushik Majumdar (IPNI Asia & Africa)
13th Asian Maize Conference and Expert Consultation on “Maize for Food, Feed,
Nutrition, and Environmental Security, Ludhiana, India, 8-10 October 2018

2. Global maize trends
• Steady increase of yield over time.
– Since the 1960s, yields have been
improving at a rate of 65 kg/ha/yr
(FAO, 2017).
• World’s total maize production
– increasing at a steady rate of 10
million M t/yr until 2004
– shifted to a steeper production of
31 M t/yr (FAO, 2017).
• Maize harvest area expansion
– increasing at a rate of 0.9 M ha/yr prior
to 2007, has now been increasing at
the more rapid pace of 4.7 M ha/yr.

3. Intensification of maize systems
• Ecological Intensification (EI) is
“...a production system that
satisfies the anticipated increase
in food demand while meeting
acceptable standards for
environmental quality”
(Cassman, 1999)
• Key elements of intensification
– Closing exploitable yield gap
– Improving soil quality
– Precision agriculture
Cassman, K.G. 1999. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 96:5952-5959; Evans and Fischer. 1999. Crop Sci. 39:1544

4. 13 Scientists dedicated towards Global Maize Initiative at 20 research
centers in 9 Countries
IPNI Global Maize Initiative
Ecologically Intensifying Maize Based Cropping Systems across the World

5. IPNI GMP Group Members

6. Avenues for advancing intensification in
maize based systems
• Exploring Maize Intensification with the Global Yield Gap
Atlas
• Approaches for intensification management
– when yield gaps are narrow
– when yield gaps are wide
– increase Nutrient Use Efficiency while maintaining yield levels
– when maize is not the primary crop
– role of precision agriculture in closing maize yield gaps
• Educating Farmers and Crop Advisers about maize
intensification

7. Maize intensification with GYGA
• Estimates of yield
potential and yield gap
for maize in 42
countries.
• The Atlas identify
regions with greatest
potential for
sustainable maize
intensification.
• Maize yield gaps
– 85% in SSA and India
– 15% in USA and
Europe
The Global Yield Gap Atlas (www.yieldgap.org)

8. Maize intensification when yield gaps are wide,
example from India
• Combining 4R with optimal
planting time, planted
population, hybrid selection,
residue management, etc.
– Consistently higher yield (26%)
over FP
– A net return of US$1,080/ha
was obtained with EI, which
was 22% higher than FP
– PFPN was higher in EI (18.7)
than FP (17.1)
– AEN was also higher under EI
(35.7) than with FP (9.1)

9. Maize intensification when yield gaps are wide
• In Muguga, yield across all
treatments were >5 t/ha
– more that 500% higher than the
yield in smallholder farming
systems
– balanced nutrient management
increased grain yield over N+P
by 2-12%
– highlights the need to change the
blanket recommendations
– tailor fertilizer sources to account
for multiple nutrient deficiencies GMP results at Muguga in central Kenya (top)
and Kambiyamwe in eastern Kenya (bottom)

10. Year Observed yield Yw 85% Yw Yield gap
EI FP 0.85Yw-EI 0.85Yw-FP
2009 8.7 7.6 10.6 9.0 0.3 1.4
2010 11.3 11.6 14.2 12.1 0.8 0.5
2011 11.9 10.4 15.9 13.5 1.6 3.1
2012 12.5 12.6 15.7 13.3 0.8 0.7
2013 11.6 11.2 15.0 12.8 1.2 1.6
Mean 11.2 10.7 14.3 12.1 0.9 1.5
Yield data in t/ha; Yw=potential yield of maize based on rainfed conditions by using Hybrid Maize Model; 85% of Yw is
the maximum attainable yield (Source: Zhao and He, 2017)
Maize intensification to maintain yield
while increasing NUE An example from China
Treatment Fertilizer use, kg/ha N timing Hybrid Population/
ha
N P2O5 K2O
EI 180 70 90 3 splits Pioneer 335 65,000
FP 250 145 100 All basal Local variety 50,000

11. Maize intensification to maintain yield
while increasing NUE An example from China

12. Opportunities for intensification approaches
when yield gaps are narrow
• At a rainfed site in Iowa, US
– strip-till maize and no-till soybean in EI over more intensive, full-
width conventional tillage in the FP
– reducing the overall N rate, additional split application
– EI produced comparable maize yields (10.65 t/ha) over
FP (11.02 t/ha)
– AEN improved in EI (35 kg/kg) over FP (25 kg/kg)
• In a clay loam soil at southern Russia
– EI for maize and other rotational crops
– increased maize yield by 9%, soybean yield by 25%, and
chickpea yield by 27%.
– resulted in greater overall system productivity

13. Precision Nutrient management in maize systems
Parameter Unit Effect of NE (NE – FFP)
India Indonesia Philippines
(n = 412) (n = 26) (n = 190)
Grain yield t/ha +1.27 *** +0.92 *** +1.10 ***
Fertilizer cost USD/ha –1 ns +16 ns +37 ***
Gross profit USD/ha +256 *** +234 *** +267 ***
*** significant at P<0.001; ns = not significant

14. Frequency Distribution of Grain Yield
0
2
4
6
8
10
0
2
4
6
8
10
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
11000
12000
13000
14000
15000
16000
Frequency
Dry matter grain yield (kg DM ha-1)
EI
FP
Average = 8021
Average = 7041

15. Environmental Component of GMP
• Examining the “…minimizing adverse environmental
effects” part of the definition of ecological intensification
• Examined various efficiencies
– Nitrogen:
• Partial factor productivity
• Agronomic efficiency
• Recovery efficiency
– Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium:
• Partial nutrient balance

16. How EI Affected Partial Factor
Productivity of Nitrogen
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
-50 0 50 100 150 200 250
ChangeinEIgrainyield(%)
Change in N rate used in EI (%)
EI maintained PFP
EI reduced PFP
EI increased PFP
1:1Compared to FP:
PFP =
Grain yield
N applied

17. Frequency Distribution of Agronomic
Efficiency
0
2
4
6
8
10
0
2
4
6
8
10
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Frequency
Agronomic efficiency
(kg ha-1 grain DM increase (kg ha-1 N applied)-1
EI
FP
Profitable use of N
Average = 19.0
Average = 19.7

18. How EI Affected Partial Nutrient Balance
of Phosphorus
1:1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
EIPNB(kgP2O5ha-1removed
(kgP2O5ha-1applied)-1)
FP PNB (kg P2O5 ha-1 removed
(kg P2O5 ha-1 applied)-1)
EI reduced PNB
EI maintained PNB
EI increased PNB
PNB =
Removed
Applied
FP builds
fertility
FP depletes
fertility
EI builds
fertility
EI depletes
fertility

19. How EI Affected Partial Nutrient Balance
of Potassium
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
EIPNB(kgK2Oha-1removed
(kgK2Oha-1applied)-1)
FP PNB (kg K2O ha-1 removed
(kg K2O ha-1 applied)-1)
EI reduced PNB
EI maintained PNB
EI increased PNB
1:1
PNB =
Removed
Applied
FP builds
fertility
FP depletes
fertility
EI builds
fertility
EI depletes
fertility

21. Questions addressed in the GMP
• IPNI’s mission is focused on the nutrient
management subset (4Rs) of practices in
cropping systems
– we fully appreciate how that subset is not only
interactive internally, but interacts with many other
factors of the production system and that those
other factors can markedly influence the
performance of nutrient inputs.
• How productive and efficient can maize systems become if
our best knowledge and technology are all brought to bear in
meeting sustainability objectives?
• How efficient and effective can nutrients and other inputs and
resources become?

22. kmajumdar@ipni.net
tsatya@ipni.net
sdutta@ipni.net
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
IPNI 18, Itiquira, Brazil
IPNI 24 and 25 – Balcarce and
Oro Verde, Argentina
IPNI 41 – Novaya Tselina, Russia IPNI 46, Muguga, Kenya
IPNI 23, Dharwad, India