Deconstructing agronomic resource use efficiencies to increase food production
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Deconstructing agronomic resource use efficiencies to increase food production. / Porter, John R.; Thorburn, Peter J.; Brown, Hamish E.; Teixeira, Edmar I.; Moot, Derrick J.; Mills, Annamaria; Christensen, Svend.
In: Italian Journal of Agronomy, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1694, 2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Deconstructing agronomic resource use efficiencies to increase food production
AU - Porter, John R.
AU - Thorburn, Peter J.
AU - Brown, Hamish E.
AU - Teixeira, Edmar I.
AU - Moot, Derrick J.
AU - Mills, Annamaria
AU - Christensen, Svend
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © the Author(s), 2021 Licensee PAGEPress, Italy.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Food production per unit land area needs to be increased, thus cropping systems need to use nutrients, water and solar radiation at as close to maximal efficiencies as possible. We deconstruct these efficiencies into their components to define a theoretical crop ideosystem, in which all resource use efficiencies are maximised. This defines an upper biological limit to food production. We then quantify the difference between maximum use efficiencies and those observed in three agronomic systems (maize, cocksfoot, sugarcane) and identify how, in actual farm systems, efficiencies can be raised to raise food production. We find that crop nutrient use efficiency can be limited by low water availability; thus adding nutrients would not raise production but adding water would. The converse situation of water use efficiency being affected by nutrition is not as evident. Ideosystem thinking can be used to define small-and large-scale agronomic systems that optimize water and nutrient use to maximise food production.
AB - Food production per unit land area needs to be increased, thus cropping systems need to use nutrients, water and solar radiation at as close to maximal efficiencies as possible. We deconstruct these efficiencies into their components to define a theoretical crop ideosystem, in which all resource use efficiencies are maximised. This defines an upper biological limit to food production. We then quantify the difference between maximum use efficiencies and those observed in three agronomic systems (maize, cocksfoot, sugarcane) and identify how, in actual farm systems, efficiencies can be raised to raise food production. We find that crop nutrient use efficiency can be limited by low water availability; thus adding nutrients would not raise production but adding water would. The converse situation of water use efficiency being affected by nutrition is not as evident. Ideosystem thinking can be used to define small-and large-scale agronomic systems that optimize water and nutrient use to maximise food production.
KW - Crop ideosystem
KW - Dactylis glomerata
KW - Resource deconstruction
KW - Resource use efficiency
KW - Saccharum officinarum
KW - Zea mays
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114049567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4081/ija.2021.1694
DO - 10.4081/ija.2021.1694
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85114049567
VL - 16
JO - Italian Journal of Agronomy
JF - Italian Journal of Agronomy
SN - 1125-4718
IS - 3
M1 - 1694
ER -
ID: 307006963