Field experimental data of crop yields, nutrient concentrations, and harvest indices from around the world

Estimates of cropland nutrient budgets and nutrient use efficiencies at national to global scales have generally relied on average nutrient concentrations for quantifying nutrients removed in crops and by-products. Calculation of crop nutrient removal requires estimates of the yield of crop products (e.g. grain or beans) and crop residues (e.g. straw or stover) and the nutrient concentration of these components. Data for yields of crop products are often readily available, but those of crop residues are not. The harvest index can be used to estimate the quantity of crop residue from available data on crop product yields. Nutrients removed in harvested crops are the major source of nutrient losses. The availability of more locally relevant crop coefficients can improve the granularity of estimates for nutrient budgets and use efficiencies. To aid this, field experimental data were collated for major crops from August 2020 to improve estimates of crop harvest index and nutrient concentrations of crop products and crop residues. This dataset contains available data from published scientific articles or theses. Articles were manually checked for relevant data (generally as summary statistics) and transferred into a standardised format. Initially, these articles were selected based on relevance to maize, rice, soybeans and wheat and for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur. It is envisioned this dataset will increase in scope over time, in terms of included nutrients and crops to further improve crop nutrient budgets and use efficiency estimates across the world.