Research Progress in High-Yield, Efficient Model for Maize Cultivation in Northeast Areas

According to the relevant provisions on project management of the National Basic Research Program (973 Program), the Project Management Office of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has mobilized experts to examine the project "Coordination Mechanism and Pathways for Dense and Water-and-Heat Efficient Cultivation of High-yielding Spring Maize" led by Dr. Zhang Weijian, Research Fellow of the Institute of Crop Sciences (ICS). Experts agreed that the research group successfully completed the tasks, fully realized the expected targets, made important achievement in farming theory and technology, and set a model for the close combination of basic research and applied research.

ICS carried out a series of joint experimental studies on high-yielding, efficient crop cultivation in northeast region in last five years, together with Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang Agricultural University, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology of CAS. It identified the key factors of the yield and efficiency of large-scale maize cultivation, illustrated the technical routes to increase the yield by 15% and fertilizer efficiency by 20%, and revealed the coordination mechanism for the aboveground and underground relations in dense crop cultivation. In the aspect of theoretical research, a total of 91 papers have been published, including 26 in SCI / EI and 12 monographs. In the aspect of technical approaches, ICS has formulated six technical regulations, obtained two patents for invention, and won five provincial awards for science and technology progress. After years of multi-point, large-scale demonstration of the new cultivation model (increasing appropriately the density, changing from spring soil preparation to autumn soil preparation and summer scarification, changing from uniform fertilizer application to formula-based differentiated application, so as to build health groups resistant to senility, disease and fall), the average yield per mu increases by 18.6%, water and heat efficiency by 18.6%, nitrogen fertilizer efficiency by 36.6%. By virtue of the significant effects, the new model has been extended to the main maize producing areas in large scale.