TY - JOUR
T1 - Agronomic and physiological performance of high-yielding wheat and rice in the lower reaches of Yangtze River of China
AU - Li, Hongwei
AU - Liu, Lijun
AU - Wang, Zhiqin
AU - Yang, Jianchnag
AU - ZHANG, Jianhua
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful for grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC-IRRI Joint Research Project 31061140457 ; General Project 31071360 ), the National Basic Research Program (973 Program, 2009CB118603 ; 2012CB114306 ), the National Key Technology Support Program of China ( 2011BAD16B14 ), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province ( BK2009-005 ), and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council ( CUHK 262809 ).
PY - 2012/7/11
Y1 - 2012/7/11
N2 - Understanding agronomic and physiological performance of crop high yield is essential to make strategies for breeding and crop management. This study aimed to identify major agronomic and physiological traits associated with high grain yields of rice and wheat in the wheat-rice rotation system in the lower reaches of Yangtze River of China. Two high-yielding cultivars, each for winter wheat and rice, were field-grown from 2008 to 2010 for 3 years. Two crop management treatments, the local farmer's practice (LFP) and improved high-yielding cultivation (IHC), were used. The IHC adopted two new techniques, i.e., site-specific nitrogen management in both rice and wheat and alternate wetting and moderate drying irrigation in rice and controlled soil drying irrigation in wheat. Across the 3 years, the IHC yielded an average 9.67tha-1 of wheat and 12.55tha-1 of rice with an annual total of 22.2tha-1, an increase of 26.8% when compared with that (17.5tha-1) under the LFP. The increased grain yield under the IHC was mainly attributed to expanded sink size as a result of more kernels per spike or more spikelets per panicle, increased kernel weight of wheat and increased percentage of filled grains of rice. When compared with LFP, IHC showed a greater percentage of productive tillers, more pre-anthesis nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) storage in the stem, greater leaf photosynthetic rate and concentration of cytokinins in root exudates, higher activities of sucrose synthase and adenosine diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase in grains, more dry mater production during the grain filling period, and higher harvest index. We conclude that (1) expanding sink capacity through an increase in kernels per spike or spikelets per panicle, (2) enhancing grain filling efficiency by an increase in pre-anthesis NSC in the stem, and (3) increasing post-anthesis dry mater production by an enhancement in root activity during grain filling should be considered as three major strategies for further increases in grain yields of wheat and rice in the lower reaches of Yangtze River of China.
AB - Understanding agronomic and physiological performance of crop high yield is essential to make strategies for breeding and crop management. This study aimed to identify major agronomic and physiological traits associated with high grain yields of rice and wheat in the wheat-rice rotation system in the lower reaches of Yangtze River of China. Two high-yielding cultivars, each for winter wheat and rice, were field-grown from 2008 to 2010 for 3 years. Two crop management treatments, the local farmer's practice (LFP) and improved high-yielding cultivation (IHC), were used. The IHC adopted two new techniques, i.e., site-specific nitrogen management in both rice and wheat and alternate wetting and moderate drying irrigation in rice and controlled soil drying irrigation in wheat. Across the 3 years, the IHC yielded an average 9.67tha-1 of wheat and 12.55tha-1 of rice with an annual total of 22.2tha-1, an increase of 26.8% when compared with that (17.5tha-1) under the LFP. The increased grain yield under the IHC was mainly attributed to expanded sink size as a result of more kernels per spike or more spikelets per panicle, increased kernel weight of wheat and increased percentage of filled grains of rice. When compared with LFP, IHC showed a greater percentage of productive tillers, more pre-anthesis nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) storage in the stem, greater leaf photosynthetic rate and concentration of cytokinins in root exudates, higher activities of sucrose synthase and adenosine diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase in grains, more dry mater production during the grain filling period, and higher harvest index. We conclude that (1) expanding sink capacity through an increase in kernels per spike or spikelets per panicle, (2) enhancing grain filling efficiency by an increase in pre-anthesis NSC in the stem, and (3) increasing post-anthesis dry mater production by an enhancement in root activity during grain filling should be considered as three major strategies for further increases in grain yields of wheat and rice in the lower reaches of Yangtze River of China.
KW - Improved high-yielding cultivation
KW - Nonstructural carbohydrate
KW - Physiological traits
KW - Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
KW - Root activity
KW - Wheat (Triticum asetivum L.)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84860293612&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fcr.2012.04.005
DO - 10.1016/j.fcr.2012.04.005
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84860293612
SN - 0378-4290
VL - 133
SP - 119
EP - 129
JO - Field Crops Research
JF - Field Crops Research
ER -