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Chinese Researcher Receives IFA Award for Correcting "Sins of the Past"
Professor
Fusuo Zhang
During the past thirty years, fertilizer use in China has grown
rapidly. Unfortunately, information on how to use fertilizers wisely has
not spread as quickly, leading to low nutrient use efficiency and
related unwanted environmental impacts. The nutrient management research
directed by Fusuo Zhang, who has been selected to receive the 2007 IFA
International Crop Nutrition Award, has provided innovative approaches
to help correct these problems.
Professor Fusuo Zhang is Dean of the College of Resources and
Environmental Sciences at China Agricultural University.
Since 1998, much of his work has concentrated on the development of
optimized nutrient management techniques for high-yield and
high-efficiency crop production. This method involves better matching
applications to crop nutrient requirements by taking into account all
sources of nutrients, including significant quantities of nitrogen from
atmospheric deposition (more than 60 kg N/hectare in parts of the North
China Plain). His approach involves nutrient budgeting, dynamic
monitoring of nutrient concentrations in the root zone (rhizosphere) at
different points in the growth cycle, real-time soil testing and plant
analysis.
Among his many other accomplishments, Professor Zhang has served as
project leader for two large Sino-German research projects in the North
China Plain concerned with sustainable farming (1998-2003) and modelling
of material flows and production systems for sustainable resource use in
intensified crop production (2004-08). He led another project between
2003 and 2006, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of China, on
nutrient management in the country's main cropping systems to improve
nutrient use efficiency, crop yield and environmental protection. These
projects demonstrate the impact of improper fertilizer application
(especially the overuse of N fertilizer and unsuitable timing of
fertilization) on major crops, including rice, maize, wheat, vegetables
and fruit trees.
Professor Zhang's work has had impacts on a wide scale due to his
numerous partnerships with fertilizer companies, government extension
services and farmer associations. Starting in 1996, his techniques were
successfully applied in 12 cropping systems located in 18 provinces,
reaching approximately 4.9 million hectares. By reducing excessive
nutrient applications, participating farmers were able to save money and
to increase their total net income by USD 428 million.
Inspired by this outcome, the central government of China invested
some USD 700 million in more than 1000 counties during 2005-06 to
promote the adoption of fertilizer recommendations based on soil testing
led by Professor Zhang. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that grain
yields in the project zones increased by eight to 15 per cent as a
result and fertilizer use efficiency by five per cent. These efficiency
gains avoided the unnecessary use of 2.3 million tonnes excess
fertilizer.
Private sector partners have also contributed to more efficient
fertilizer use, with some 240 companies providing soil testing,
fertilizer use recommendations, appropriate products and crop advisers.
As well as changing the quantities they apply, farmers have also
embraced a better product mix. Wider use of compound and blended
fertilizers has improved nutrient balances, another important element of
fertilizer use efficiency. A growing number of fertilizer companies and
government agencies have subsequently developed strategies to better
manage phosphorus resources.
In recent years, Professor Zhang's work has been motivated by general
concerns about natural resource management and the sustainable
development of China's fertilizer industry. One of his research projects
found that the country's high-grade phosphate rock would be exhausted by
2014 unless more efficient mining and processing technologies were put
in place.
In 2005, the State Council of China awarded Professor Zhang the
National Natural Science Prize (the country's most prestigious science
award) in recognition of his work on rhizosphere nutrient management. He
is the only plant nutrition and fertilizer scientist in China to have
received this prize.
As a highly respected scientist with solid international credentials,
Professor Zhang has authored or co-authored numerous papers and book
chapters, presented or published the world over. Many of his research
projects entail international collaboration. Professor Zhang's
laboratory has become an important national and international centre for
scientific research on plant nutrition, and one of the outstanding
international platforms for scientific training in this field.
IFA member JSC Uralkali nominated Professor Fusuo Zhang for the IFA
award, which he accepted on 22 May during the IFA
Annual Conference. |
