Nutrient use efficiency is an important index not only for fertilizer recomm endation on the field scale but also for forecasting fertilizer demand on the regional and national scales,however,exact nutrient use efficiencies of the major cereal crops in China are not well known yet.In this paper,data from 1 333 field experiments were collected and used for analysis and evaluation of partial factor productivity(PFP),agronomic efficiency(AE),apparent recovery efficiency (RE)and physiological efficiency(PE)of these crops.Results show that AE_N of rice,wheat and maize was 10.4 kg kg^-1,7.99 kg kg^-1 and 9.80 kg kg^-1,respectively,and RE_N of rice,wheat and maize was 28.3%,28.2% and 26.1%,respectively,obviouslymuch lower than the world's average,whichis attributed to over-use of chemical fertilize,rignorance of contribution of nutrients from the environment and the soil, failure to bring crop yield potential into full play, and inability to inhibit nutrient losses effectively.