Abstract
Straw return is regarded as a widely used field management strategy for improving soil health, but its comprehensive effect on crop grain yield and quality remains elusive. Herein, a meta-analysis containing 1822 pairs of observations from 78 studies was conducted to quantify the effect of straw return on grain yield and quality of three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat). On average, compared with no straw return, straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) increased grain yield (+4.3%), protein content (+2.5%), total amino acids concentration (+1.2%), and grain phosphorus content (+3.6%), respectively. Meanwhile, straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) decreased rice chalky grain rate (-14.4%), overall grain hardness (-1.9%), and water absorption of maize and wheat (-0.5%), respectively. Moreover, straw return effects on grain yield and quality traits were infected by cultivated crop types, straw return amounts, straw return methods, and straw return duration. Our findings illustrated that direct straw return increased three main crop grain yields and improved various quality traits among different agricultural production areas. Although improper straw return may increase plant disease risk and affect seed germination, our results suggest that full straw return with covered or plough mode is a more suitable way to enhance grain yield and quality. Our study also highlights that compared with direct straw return, straw burning or composting before application may also be beneficial to farmland productivity and sustainability, but comparative studies in this area are still lacking.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return increased grain yield by 4.3% versus no return.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheat
Oryza sativa
Triticum aestivum
Zea mayse1 - Treatment
- straw returne0
- Outcome
- grain yielde0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 4.3%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compared with no straw return, straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) increased grain yield (+4.3%)”
e1“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return increased grain protein content by 2.5%.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse2
- Treatment
- straw returne0
- Outcome
- protein contente0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 2.5%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) increased grain yield (+4.3%), protein content (+2.5%)”
e1“compared with no straw return”
e2“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return increased total amino acids concentration by 1.2%.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse2
- Treatment
- straw returne1
- Outcome
- total amino acids concentratione0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 1.2%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“increased grain yield (+4.3%), protein content (+2.5%), total amino acids concentration (+1.2%)”
e1“compared with no straw return, straw return significantly ( p < 0.05)”
e2“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return increased grain phosphorus content by 3.6%.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse2
- Treatment
- straw returne1
- Outcome
- grain phosphorus contente0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 3.6%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“increased grain yield (+4.3%), protein content (+2.5%), total amino acids concentration (+1.2%), and grain phosphorus content (+3.6%)”
e1“compared with no straw return, straw return significantly ( p < 0.05)”
e2“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return decreased rice chalky grain rate by 14.4%.
- Taxon
- riceOryza sativae0
- Treatment
- straw returne0
- Outcome
- chalky grain ratee0
- Direction
- decreasede0
- Value
- -14.4%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) decreased rice chalky grain rate (-14.4%)”
e1“compared with no straw return”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return decreased overall grain hardness by 1.9%.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse2
- Treatment
- straw returne0
- Outcome
- overall grain hardnesse0
- Direction
- decreasede0
- Value
- -1.9%e0
- Comparator
- no straw returne1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) decreased rice chalky grain rate (-14.4%), overall grain hardness (-1.9%)”
e1“compared with no straw return”
e2“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
Straw return decreased water absorption of maize and wheat by 0.5%.
- Taxon
- maize and wheatTriticum aestivumZea mayse0
- Treatment
- straw returne0
- Outcome
- water absorptione0
- Direction
- decreasede0
- Value
- -0.5%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“straw return significantly ( p < 0.05) decreased rice chalky grain rate (-14.4%), overall grain hardness (-1.9%), and water absorption of maize and wheat (-0.5%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop type, straw amount, method and duration modified straw-return effects on yield and quality.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse1
- Treatment
- straw return amounts, straw return methods, and straw return duratione0
- Outcome
- grain yield and quality traitse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“straw return effects on grain yield and quality traits were infected by cultivated crop types, straw return amounts, straw return methods, and straw return duration”
e1“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend full straw return with covered or plough mode to enhance yield and quality.
- Taxon
- maize, rice, and wheatOryza sativaTriticum aestivumZea mayse1
- Outcome
- full straw return with covered or plough modee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“full straw return with covered or plough mode is a more suitable way to enhance grain yield and quality”
e1“three main crops (maize, rice, and wheat)”
The same questions in other papers
organic · quality: protein · Oryza sativa (rice)Positive and negative results
5 papers in the same direction as this paper · 2 in the opposite direction
- negative
- no effect
- positive
4 papers more in this group
See all 8 papers →organic · quality: protein · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
9 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- positive
- positive
7 papers more in this group
See all 11 papers →organic · quality: protein · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Positive and negative results
17 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- positive
- no effect
- positive
15 papers more in this group
See all 19 papers →organic · molecular: metabolites · Oryza sativa (rice)Positive and negative results
21 papers in the same direction as this paper · 3 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- negative
- no effect
21 papers more in this group
See all 25 papers →organic · molecular: metabolites · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Positive and negative results
18 papers in the same direction as this paper · 6 in the opposite direction
- negative
- no effect
- negative
21 papers more in this group
See all 25 papers →organic · molecular: metabolites · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
30 papers in the same direction as this paper · 8 in the opposite direction
- negative
- negative
- negative
35 papers more in this group
See all 39 papers →organic · nutrient: content · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Positive and negative results
78 papers in the same direction as this paper · 10 in the opposite direction
- positive
- negative
- negative
85 papers more in this group
See all 89 papers →organic · nutrient: content · Oryza sativa (rice)Positive and negative results
95 papers in the same direction as this paper · 10 in the opposite direction
- positive
- negative
- negative
102 papers more in this group
See all 106 papers →8 of 12 groups shown: named compounds and organisms first, then groups whose results differ (checked claim by claim), then those with positive and negative results, then the smaller groups.
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.