Introduction
Food security is one of the most important challenges facing humankind. Therefore improving crop yields are essential to meet the increasing pressure of global food demands. The Decreasing the area of high-quality land, increasing fertilizer use, and its effect on the environment indicate that we need to develop new strategies to increase grain yields with less impact on the environment. One strategy that could help address this concern is by narrowing the yield gaps using improved management. Therefore, the present study was conducted in Khorramshahr region for recognition of best management practices, percentage of the affected fields, estimation of wheat and rapeseed yield potential and gaps using boundary line analysis.
Materials and Methods
To quantify the production and estimation of wheat and rapeseed yield gap in Khoramshahr, Farm management information of 60 wheat fields and 57 rapeseed fields in the years 2018-2019 were collected. The information was collected through continuous farm monitoring during the growing season as along with face to face interviews with the farmers. Farms were selected by consulting with agricultural service centers expert in Khorramshahr districts. Based on the available information at the agricultural service centers, only farms, which is different in terms of acreage, cultural practices and harvesting operations were selected. In this study, by plotting the distribution of the yield obtained in each field as the dependent variable against the independent variables (crop management activities), using SAS software and an appropriate function was fitted on the upper edge of the data distribution.
Results and Discussion
Using this boundary line analysis method, the average yield, attainable yield and yield gap of wheat were obtained as 3740, 5455 and 1715 kg per hectare respectively. The yield gap percentage in wheat was 31.5% and rapeseed was 48%, which indicates the high effectiveness of wheat and rapeseed in relation to the use of appropriate management methods. The analysis of the investigated data in wheat fields showed that in order to achieve the achievable yield, 258 kg per hectare of seeds, the use of Mehrgan variety, the planting date until October 24, the amount of 280 kg per hectare of nitrogen fertilizer, the consumption of at least 100 Phosphorus fertilizer per hectare was at least 6 kg with irrigation and consumption of at least 70 kg of potassium fertilizer. Also, according to the frontier line analysis, the average yield of rapeseed farmers is 1663 kg, they can achieve a yield of 3197 kg per hectare by improving crop management, and for this purpose, the following measures should be taken into account: 1) consuming a maximum of seven kilograms of seeds per hectare 2) Planting date up to 17 November 3) Use of at least 300 kg of nitrogen fertilizer 4) At least 42 kg of phosphorus fertilizer 5) Use of Hyola 50 variety.
Conclusion
In this study by examining several important management factors in growing wheat and rapeseed, optimal requirements of each factor to achieve the highest yield was determined by borderline analysis. In addition, the percentage of farms that had poor management as well as wheat and rapeseed yield potential and gaps in Khorramshahr. Yield responses to management practices were evaluated and studied by means of borderline analysis. Best management practices could be devised using study findings to realize the highest yield potential.
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