article · Sustainability
In arid agricultural regions, high nitrogen fertiliser inputs often lead to low nutrient use efficiency and substantial environmental nitrogen losses. A field investigation evaluated cotton stalk biochar enriched with urea and biofertilizer on wheat crops under arid conditions. Across six experimental setups, reducing nitrogen inputs to half doses, even when supplemented with biofertilizers or biochar inoculants, led to reduced crop growth and yield compared to standard regional practices. However, blending biofertilizer with biochar pre-loaded with a full nitrogen dose generated significant agronomic improvements. This combined soil mixture enhanced the crop growth rate, leaf area index, light interception, and radiation use efficiency. The treatment delivered an 11 percent increase in grain yield over conventional nitrogen fertilisation alone, driven by prolonged soil nitrogen availability and higher nitrogen uptake in plants throughout the growing season.
High chemical fertiliser use in dryland farming frequently wastes nutrients and pollutes ecosystems through nitrogen runoff and emissions. By chemically loading nitrogen onto biochar and co-applying biofertilizers, farmers can maintain soil nitrogen availability longer. This approach improves crop efficiency and lifts harvest yields under arid conditions without increasing overall fertiliser quantities.
This research demonstrates an applied, field-tested soil management intervention using cotton stalk waste for agricultural input suppliers and wheat growers in arid regions. Commercialisation would involve producing biochar loaded with nitrogen fertiliser and formulating biofertilizer mixtures for direct soil application. The intervention is at the field trial stage, requiring further validation across different crop systems, equipment integration, and economic feasibility assessments before routine commercial deployment.
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Nitrogen (N) losses are prevalent under South East Asia’s due to high N fertilizer inputs, but low N fertilizer use efficiency. This leaves a large quantity of reactive N at risk of loss to the environment. Biochar has been found to reduce N losses across a variety of soil types, however, there is limited data available for semi-arid climates, particularly at a field-scale. Herein we present an exploration of the biological and chemical enhancement effects observed of a cotton stalk-based biochar on wheat growth and yield under arid field conditions. The biochar was treated with urea-N and biofertilizer (bio-power) in different treatment setups. The six experimental treatments included; (i) a full N dose “recommended for wheat crops in the region” (104 kg N ha−1) as a positive control; (ii) a half N dose (52 kg N ha−1); (iii) a half N dose + biofertilizer (4.94 kg ha−1) as a soil mixture; (iv) a half N dose + biofertilizer as a seed inoculation; (v) a full N dose as broadcast + biochar (5 t ha−1) inoculated with biofertilizer; and (vi) a full N dose loaded on biochar + biofertilizer applied as a soil mixture. The half dose N application or biofertilizer addition as soil mix/seed inoculated/biochar inoculation with biofertilizer caused reduced wheat growth and yield compared to the control (conventional N fertilization). However, co-application of chemically enhanced biochar (loaded with a full N dose) and biofertilizer as soil mixture significantly increased the crop growth rate (CGR) and leaf area index (LAI). A significantly higher crop growth and canopy development led to a higher light interception and radiation use efficiency (RUE) for total dry matter (TDM) and grain yield (11% greater than control) production compared to the control. A greater grain yield, observed for the full N dose loaded on biochar + biofertilizer applied as a soil mixture, is attributed to prolonged N availability as indicated by greater plant and soil N content at harvest and different crop growth stages, respectively. The present study has improved our understanding of how the application of nitrogen loaded biochar and biofertilizer as soil mixtures can synergize to positively affect wheat growth and soil-nitrogen retention under arid environmental conditions.
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DOI: 10.3390/su13115890
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