Effectiveness of compound fertilizer on grain yields in China

Chinas compound fertilizer industry has developed very fast in the past decade, and has been the major catalyst for development of the chemical fertilizer industry. In this study 1143 farmers in 6 provinces were surveyed in 2009, and the contribution of compound fertilizer to crop yields and crop production costs were evaluated. Compound fertilizer dominated the nutrient input in grain fields, with 32.1% of N, 57.0% of P2O5 and 58.2% of K which is higher than that in Western Europe (especially of N). Compared to the farmers who only used single fertilizer, amount of nutrient inputs and fertilizer cost were increased by 12.2% and 26.7% respectively in farmers who used compound fertilizer. But the crop yield did not increased accordingly when use compound fertilizer. Maize yield was significantly increased by 29.9% when use various type of compound fertilizer. Rice yield was significantly increased when use some type of compound fertilizer, but not happened in all case. Nearly all of the compound fertilizer did not increase wheat yield. The results showed that the application of compound fertilizer is not soundly based in China. There are three main reasons for this: formulas of compound fertilizer are not designed based on the results of soil tests and field experiments; farmers do not receive effective instructions on how to use the fertilizer correctly and efficiently; and too many fake products exist in the Chinese compound fertilizer market.