Agronomic gain: Definition, approach, and application.

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Agronomy
• Sustainable Intensification

Background:

• Global staple crop demand necessitates continuous productivity enhancement.
• Existing performance indicators for productivity lack standardization across crops and geographies, hindering understanding of sustainable intensification.
• There is a need for simple, robust key performance indicators (KPIs) to standardize knowledge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define and apply the concept of 'agronomic gain' as an improvement in KPIs.
• To assess agronomic gain across different stages of science-based agronomic innovations.
• To identify challenges and propose solutions for assessing agronomic gain, particularly for rice in sub-Saharan Africa.

Main Methods:

• Defined 'agronomic gain' based on improvements in KPIs (productivity, resource use efficiency, soil health).
• Applied the concept to various assessment approaches: yield gap analysis, meta-analysis, on-station/on-farm studies, impact assessment, panel studies, and statistical analysis.
• Focused on rice studies in sub-Saharan Africa to analyze yield gaps and assess KPIs.

Main Results:

• Identified challenges in assessing agronomic gain, including differentiating it from genetic gain, unreliable data collection, and scalability issues.
• Highlighted the importance of multi-environment trials to understand variety × agronomic practice × environment interactions.
• Proposed novel KPI assessment methods using remote sensing and mobile devices.

Conclusions:

• Standardized assessment of agronomic gain is essential for advancing sustainable crop intensification.
• Overcoming assessment challenges requires integrated approaches, including multi-environment trials and innovative data collection technologies.
• Improved assessment methodologies will facilitate better understanding and implementation of sustainable agronomic practices for food security.