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Topic · Agronomy and Crop Science

Crop Yield and Soil Fertility

Crop Yield and Soil Fertility is a research topic within Agronomy and Crop Science. Science Explorer counts 39k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores various factors affecting maize yield, including nitrogen uptake, plant density, lodging resistance, hybrid selection, grain quality, stalk strength, source-sink relationship, genetic improvement, and crop management.

  • Maize Yield
  • Nitrogen Uptake
  • Plant Density
  • Lodging Resistance
  • Hybrid Selection
  • Grain Quality
  • Stalk Strength
  • Source-Sink Relationship
  • Genetic Improvement
  • Crop Management
Research works
39k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+31%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
India
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Crop Yield and Soil Fertility

Which countries lead Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research?

By volume, India and China publish the most (2.2k and 1.5k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 India 2.2k works
  2. 2 China 1.5k works
  3. 3 United States 705 works
  4. 4 Brazil 421 works
  5. 5 Pakistan 339 works
  6. 6 Egypt 328 works
  7. 7 Iraq 267 works
  8. 8 Ethiopia 247 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 216 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 216 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

India: 34.4%China: 22.8%United States: 11.0%Brazil: 6.6%6 others listed: 25.2%34%largest
India2,196 · 34.4%China1,459 · 22.8%United States705 · 11.0%Brazil421 · 6.6%6 others listed1,612 · 25.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research?

By volume in 2022-now, Indian Council of Agricultural Research publishes the most Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research, followed by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 337 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 207 works
  3. 3 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural ResearchEthiopia 130 works
  4. 4 Sam Higginbottom Institute of AgricultureIndia 127 works
  5. 5 Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityIndia 110 works
  6. 6 Agricultural Research CenterEgypt 104 works
  7. 7 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 97 works
  8. 8 Punjab Agricultural UniversityIndia 94 works
  9. 9 China Agricultural UniversityChina 84 works
  10. 10 Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and TechnologyIndia 67 works

Who are the leading researchers in Crop Yield and Soil Fertility?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Crop Yield and Soil Fertility include Rob Knight, George Davey Smith and Jun Wang.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  3. 3 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  4. 4 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  5. 5 David Tilman United States 209k citations
  6. 6 Ejaz Ahmad Khan United States 190k citations
  7. 7 Peter B. Reich United States 189k citations
  8. 8 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
  9. 9 Kazuo Shinozaki Japan 170k citations
  10. 10 Han Zhang China 161k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Crop Yield and Soil Fertility?

The most cited paper in Crop Yield and Soil Fertility is "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices" (David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson et al., 2002), with 7,955 citations. Next come "Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980" (4,603) and "Soil structure and management: a review" (4,447).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson et al. · Nature Aug 2002 7,955
2 Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980 David B. Lobell, Wolfram Schlenker, Justin Costa-Roberts · Science 5 May 2011 4,603
3 Soil structure and management: a review C. J. Bronick, Rattan Lal · Geoderma 28 Apr 2004 4,447
4 Plant Productivity and Environment J. S. Boyer · Science 29 Oct 1982 3,978
5 Agricultural Intensification and Ecosystem Properties Pamela A. Matson, W. J. Parton, Alison G. Power et al. · Science 25 Jul 1997 3,159
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research done?

The largest centres of Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), New Delhi (India), Giza (Egypt) and Allahabad (India). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Gia Lộc, Parbhani and Bikaner.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 378 works
  2. 2 New DelhiIndia 160 works
  3. 3 GizaEgypt 145 works
  4. 4 AllahabadIndia 143 works
  5. 5 Addis AbabaEthiopia 141 works
  6. 6 CoimbatoreIndia 128 works
  7. 7 HyderabadIndia 119 works
  8. 8 LudhianaIndia 114 works
  9. 9 KanpurIndia 82 works
  10. 10 FaisalabadPakistan 80 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Gia LộcVN · 29.9 works214×
  2. ParbhaniIN · 20.1 works59×
  3. BikanerIN · 39.5 works53×
  4. PālampurIN · 29.3 works52×
  5. FaizabadIN · 22.8 works52×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Crop Yield and Soil Fertility than the world average.

See Crop Yield and Soil Fertility on the map

Where is the best place to study Crop Yield and Soil Fertility?

Among universities, judged by research, China Agricultural University, Northwest A&F University and Nanjing Agricultural University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 29.71%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…China Agricultural U…Nanjing Agricultural…King Saud University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1China Agricultural UniversityChina 81.933.6%18.9×84 +51.5%
2Northwest A&F UniversityChina 79.436.6%17.5×54 +45.8%
3Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 71.533.5%10.7×33 +113.2%
4King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 65.029.7%2.2×17 +279.8%
5Yangzhou UniversityChina 63.224.8%9.9×44 +134.9%
6The University of Western AustraliaAustralia 62.932.7%3.2×11 +28.6%
7University of Agriculture FaisalabadPakistan 62.79.1%48.2×64 +56.2%
8Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesSweden 62.529.8%9.3×11 +119.7%
9University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 62.340.8%1.2×15 +111.5%
10Shandong Agricultural UniversityChina 61.726.5%31.2×44 +14.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Crop Yield and Soil Fertility, country by country

Is Crop Yield and Soil Fertility research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 31% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Crop Yield and Soil Fertility.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Crop Yield and Soil Fertility as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.051% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Crop Yield and Soil Fertility0.039% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Crop Yield and Soil Fertility over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Crop Yield and Soil Fertility11.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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