Regional background information

Area covered: Northeast region covers Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, and Northcentral region covers Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Beijing and Tianjin.

Main crops in the Regiona

Northeast China: Maize, rice and soybean are the main crops in Northeast China, with 29.3%, 13.8% and 47.5% of national planting area, accounting for 30.9%, 14.7% and 46.8% of national crop production. Planting area and production for one-season rice, maize and soybean in Heilongjiang ranks first among different provinces in China.

The maize and rice planting area has kept the trends of increasing since 2000, and soybean planting area increased in 2005, and keeps not change for 2010, while soybean planting area for Jilin and Liaoning declined after 2000.

Table 1 Acreage, average yields, and total production of main crops in Northeast China

Province	Year	2000			2005			2010
	Crop	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha
Heilongjiang	Maize	1,801	791	4,390	2,220	1,043	4,697	4,368	2,324	5,321
	Rice	1,606	1,042	6,490	1,650	1,122	6,796	2,769	1,844	6,659
	Soybean	2,868	450	1,569	3,548	630	1,774	3,548	585	1,649
Jilin	Maize	2,197	993	4,520	2,775	1,801	6,489	3,047	2,004	6,578
	Rice	585	375	6,409	654	473	7,237	674	569	8,441
	Soybean	539	120	2,232	505	130	2,579	377	87	2,298
Liaoning	Maize	1,423	551	3,874	1,793	1,136	6,335	2,093	1,151	5,497
	Rice	490	377	7,701	568	417	7,328	678	458	6,754
	Soybean	302	48	1,593	254	38	1,515	123	34	2,763

Northcentral China: Wheat, maize and vegetables are the main crops in North Central China. In 2010, the planting area of wheat, maize and vegetables in North-central China is around 12.1, 10.5 and 4.9 million hectares, accounting for about 50%, 33.8% and 26.8% of national level, which produces 57.6%, 35.7% and 38.2% of national total wheat, maize and vegetable production. Henan, Shandong and Hebei are the first top three provinces in planting area and total production, and then followed by Shanxi, Tianjin and Beijing. In most cases, Shandong, Henan and Hebei achieved the maximum yield of maize, wheat and vegetables in the region, respectively. Crops yields in Tianjin and Beijing are higher than Shanxi, but with limited planting area.

The maize planting area has kept the trends of increasing since 2000, and wheat and vegetable planting area remains a slowly decreasing or stagnant except Henan.

Table 2 Acreage, average yields, and total production of main crops in Northcentral China

Province	Year	2000			2005			2010
	Crop	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha	Areage 1000 ha	Production 10000 t	Yield kg/ha
Hebei	Wheat	2,679	1,208	4,509	2,377	1,150	4,839	2,420	1,231	5,085
	Maize	2,479	995	4,012	2,677	1,194	4,459	3,009	1,509	5,015
	Vegetables	866	4,454	51,426	1,105	6,468	58,541	1,139	7,074	62,127
Henan	Wheat	4,922	2,236	4,543	4,963	2,578	5,194	5,280	3,082	5,838
	Maize	2,201	1,075	4,883	2,508	1,298	5,175	2,946	1,635	5,549
	Vegetables	1,189	3,982	33,483	1,596	5,880	36,846	1,704	6,624	38,873
Shandong	Wheat	3,748	1,860	4,962	3,279	1,801	5,492	3,562	2,059	5,780
	Maize	2,414	1,468	6,079	2,731	1,735	6,354	2,955	1,932	6,538
	Vegetables	1,788	7,257	40,577	1,848	8,607	46,582	1,771	9,031	50,998
Shanxi	Wheat	893	215	2,409	721	202	2,806	729	232	3,188
	Maize	794	355	4,470	1,184	616	5,205	1,549	766	4,945
	Vegetables	242	920	38,010	245	902	36,813	229	909	39,790
Tianjin	Wheat	122	60	4,889	99	47	4,793	111	53	4,814
	Maize	131	41	3,125	139	73	5,274	169	93	5,490
	Vegetables	128	531	41,356	130	543	41,846	85	419	49,418
Beijing	Wheat	122	67	5,497	53	27	5,009	62	28	4,610
	Maize	136	59	4,323	120	63	5,230	150	84	5,621
	Vegetables	108	489	45,375	89	424	47,843	68	303	44,860

Fertilizer consumption in the region:

The Northeast and North-central region occupies about 10% and 29% of national total NPK and compound fertilizer consumption, but it is not balanced across different provinces/cities. In North-central region, Henan and Shandong consume the first and second rank of the regional fertilizer production for both chemical and compound fertilizer, and then followed by Hebei, Shanxi,Tianjin and Beijing.

Table 2 Fertilizer consumption in Northeast and Northcentral Region (10000 t)

Year	2000				2005				2010
Province	N	P2O5	K2O	Compound	N	P2O5	K2O	Compound	N	P2O5	K2O	Compound
Heilongjiang	52.4	28.7	10.5	30.0	57.5	33.8	17.7	42	77.4	47.4	30.8	59.4
Jilin	64.7	5.5	8.5	33.4	61.3	6.2	10.0	60.7	66.9	6.6	12.2	97.1
Liaoning	66.7	11.1	8.3	23.7	64.0	11.4	9.6	34.9	68.3	11.4	12.2	48.1
Beijing	10.5	1.0	0.4	6.1	7.8	1.2	0.6	5.2	7.0	0.9	0.7	5.2
Tianjin	9.2	2.0	0.7	4.7	11.6	3.7	1.5	6.6	12.4	4.0	1.6	8.0
Hebei	148.0	43.8	16.8	62.0	155.2	48.6	24.3	75.4	153.0	47.4	26.3	89.4
Shanxi	42.2	19.8	5.1	19.8	41.1	19.0	6.9	28.8	38.7	18.9	8.1	38.7
Shandong	198.6	57.8	36.8	130.0	189.8	57.5	44.9	175.5	165.0	51.4	46.5	210.0
Henan	205.7	97.2	36.7	79.9	227.2	106.1	50.8	134.1	239.4	116.6	59.8	212.9

Major Plant Nutrition Issues in the Region

Low nutrient use efficiency caused by poor nutrient management: about 1/3 of the national fertilizer has been applied to North-central region, which represents ¼ of the arable land for grain and vegetable production. Over and imbalanced fertilizer especially excessive N application and not balanced with P and K has been applied on wheat/maize double cropping system and greenhouse vegetables. A recent investigation from across 595 field experiment in North Central demonstrated that the farmers applied 230 kg N/ha, 96 kg P₂O₅/ha and 63 kg K₂O/ha averagely, and about one third of farmers apply over 300 kg N/ha on winter wheat. This over and imbalanced fertilization has led to inefficient use of nutrients. The research results indicated that the average agronomic efficiency of N, P and K in North-central China is 9.5 kg/kg, 23.0 kg/kg and 7.6 kg/kg, respectively, and the corresponding recovery efficiency values are 35.2%, 17.8% and 23.7%, separately. Over fertilization with N, organic additions and insufficient supply of K used in the region, remains big issues for greenhouse vegetable system as well.

High environmental risk caused by bad nutrient management: Continuous winter wheat and summer maize cropping without balanced and efficient use of fertilizers, and over fertilization in vegetables has contributed to not only losses in yield and profit, but also to environmental problems such as groundwater nitrate-N contamination and eutrophication of rivers. A 1998 investigation of groundwater nitrate-N content in Shouguang County of Shandong province showed that 29% of 80 samples exceeded 45 mg NO₃^–1 L^–1, and the percentage increased to 49% in 2001. Therefore, cooperation on optimized nutrient management practices is urgently needed to maximize crop yield and maintain soil fertility while minimizing environmental impacts.

Future Opportunities

IPNI, China Northeast and North Central Region, has developed research and educational programs on balanced fertilization following the 4RS Nutrient Stewardshio, the right source at the right rate, time and place, in collaboration with national institutes of agriculture of the region, universities, farmer's organizations, agronomists associations, and others. Most of this work is shown at this website and in other activities such as publications, presentations and training sessions, and field meetings.