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High-yield maize with large net energy yield and small global warming intensity:
Addressing concerns about future food supply and climate change requires management practices that maximize productivity per unit of arable land while reducing negative environmental impact. Onfarm data were evaluated to assess energy balance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of irrigated maize in Nebraska that received large nitrogen (N) fertilizer (183 kg of N·ha−1) and irrigation water inputs (272 mm or 2,720 m3ha−1). Although energy inputs (30GJ·ha−1) were larger than those reported for US maize systems in previous studies, irrigated maize in central Nebraska achieved higher grain and net energy yields (13.2 Mg·ha−1and 159 GJ·ha−1, respectively) and lower GHG-emission intensity (231 kg of CO2e·Mg−1 of grain). Greater input-use efficiencies, especially for N fertilizer, were responsible for better performance of these irrigated systems, compared with much lower-yielding, mostly rainfed maize systems in previous studies. Large variation in energy inputs and GHG emissions across irrigated fields in the present study resulted from differences in applied irrigation water amount and imbalances between applied N inputs and crop N demand, indicating potential to further improve environmental performance through better management of these inputs. Observed variation in N-use efficiency, at any level of applied N inputs, suggests that an N-balance approach may be more appropriate for estimating soil N2O emissions than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change approach based on a fixed proportion of applied N. Negative correlation between GHG-emission intensity and net energy yield supports the proposition that achieving high yields, large positive energy balance, and low GHG emissions in intensive cropping systems are not conflicting goals.