Economic parameter estimates of spring wheat varieties grown under different cultivation technologies

The demand for wheat is projected to increase by 60% by 2050, highlighting its critical importance. This research aimed to investigate the impact of cultivation technologies on grain yield and the economic efficiency of different cultivation technologies for spring wheat in the non-chernozem zone of the Russian Federation, where most research has focused only on yield and quality comparisons. Field experiments were conducted over two cropping seasons 2022 and 2023, using a split block design with three replications to assess three different cultivation technologies (Basic, Intensive and High-Intensive) and three genotypes (Agros, Belyana and Radmira). Findings revealed that variety and cultivation technology significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected spring wheat grain yields, agronomic efficiency of potassium (AE_K), and phosphorus (AE_P). Plots amended with basic and high-intensive cultivation technologies exhibited the lowest and highest wheat grain yields of 3.9 and 4.9 t ha⁻¹, respectively. Belyana had the highest grain yield (5.0 t ha⁻¹) followed by Agros (4.9 t ha⁻¹). There was a significant increase in all economic parameter estimates with improved cultivation technologies. Agros exhibited the highest gross revenue over control (42718.0 Rub. ha⁻¹), grain yield value (67900.0 Rub. ha⁻¹), and net return (17537.0 Rub. ha⁻¹) under high intensive cultivation technology, while Radmira had the highest marginal return (0.770) under intensive and variable cost ratio (1.77) under high intensive cultivation technology, whereas Belyana had the lowest values. Findings established that the application of improved cultivation technology maximizes crop yields and net returns, to meet the demands of the growing population.