Legume Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.6, 253-269 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/lgg 253 Case study Open Access Study on Optimizing Density Planting and Fertilization Strategies to Increase BeanYield Yuping Huang, Yunxia Chen, Hangming Lin Tropical Legume Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: hangming.lin@hitar.org Legume Genomics and Genetics, 2025 Vol.16, No.6 doi: 10.5376/lgg.2025.16.0026 Received: 05 Sep., 2025 Accepted: 22 Oct., 2025 Published: 05 Nov., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Huang et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Huang Y.P., Chen Y.X., and Lin H.M., 2025, Study on optimizing density planting and fertilization strategies to increase bean yield, Legume Genomics and Genetics, 16(6): 253-269 (doi: 10.5376/lgg.2025.16.0026) Abstract Legumes play an important role in ensuring food security and promoting sustainable agricultural development. As key agronomic measures to increase legume yields, dense planting and fertilization management have attracted increasing attention for their optimal combination. Based on field trials of various legumes and recent research results, this study systematically explored the effects of different dense planting levels on plant morphology, population structure and yield composition, analyzed the regulatory mechanisms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ratios, organic and inorganic fertilizer synergy and topdressing timing on nutrient absorption and nitrogen fixation efficiency, and further discussed the effects of the interactive effects of dense planting and fertilization on biomass accumulation and resource allocation. Through regional trials in Zhumadian, Henan and Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, this study clarified the yield potential and economic benefits of the "medium-high density + nitrogen reduction and potassium increase" and "medium density + controlled-release fertilizer" models, providing a theoretical basis and practical path for achieving regionalized precision management and green and high-yield legume cultivation, which will help improve China's legume self-sufficiency level and promote the green transformation of agriculture. Keywords Legume crops; Close planting; Nutrient management; Nitrogen fixation; Organic and inorganic fertilizers; High-yield cultivation 1 Introduction Legumes play a dual role in global agriculture, both in terms of food supply and soil health maintenance. On the one hand, legume seeds are rich in plant protein and oil, and are an important food source for humans and livestock; on the other hand, legumes and rhizobia symbiotically fix nitrogen, fixing a large amount of nitrogen for agricultural ecosystems every year, thereby reducing dependence on fertilizer nitrogen. This biological nitrogen fixation not only meets most of the nitrogen needs of legumes for their own growth (it is estimated that 50%-60% of the required nitrogen can be provided), but also increases soil nitrogen reserves by returning stubble to the fields, improving the growth of subsequent crops. Therefore, in the context of advocating sustainable agriculture and nutritional security today, expanding legume cultivation is of great significance. The United Nations designated 2016 as the "International Year of Legumes", emphasizing the important contribution of legumes to healthy diets and soil environment (Yanni et al., 2023). At present, the total output of legumes (such as soybeans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, etc.) in the world continues to grow, but the regional distribution is uneven and the self-sufficiency rate varies greatly. For example, my country is the world's largest soybean consumer, but it is heavily dependent on imports, with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 20% (Hao et al., 2023). Improving the yield level of beans and improving soil fertility to achieve increased production and efficiency are key issues for ensuring food security and achieving sustainable agricultural development. Under the conditions of limited arable land resources, it is an inevitable choice to tap the potential for crop yield increase by optimizing agronomic measures. Among them, reasonable dense planting and scientific fertilization management are recognized as two important means to increase crop yield and resource utilization efficiency. Appropriately increasing the planting density can increase the group light energy interception and land utilization rate, increase the biomass and pod number per unit area, and thus increase the total yield. For example, in field experiments in Northeast China, as the soybean planting density increased, the group photosynthetic light
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