Maize cropping (Zea mays L.) assessment by simple performance-based index

Abstract

A simple performance-based index was used to test performance among maize cropping systems referring to the food and raw material production, nutrient cycling and greenhouse gases regulation. Those indices are tools for aggregating and simplifying agroecosystem impact on the environment. The data were acquired from a long-term experiment at the Rimski Sancevi experimental station of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia. Observed indicators were compared by using datasets from 2001 to 2010, across five maize cropping systems. Maize continuous cropping resulted with decrease in the utilization of the agroecological potential compared with the fertilized crop rotation. Long term maize-based cropping resulted with differences in soil organic carbon content, soil pH and temporal soil NO3. However, recommended fertilizers application and crop rotation contributed to the overall agroecosystems ability to decrease the anthropogenic pressure. Accordingly, it was found that yield decrease resulted mostly from inability of the cropping systems to utilize agricultural management (tillage, fertilization, etc.) in variable environmental conditions. For the investigated trial the performance based index showed that a 2-year maize cropping had the highest capacity for sustainable maize growing.