Abstract
The ridge and furrow farming system for rainfall concentration (RC) has gradually been popularized to improve the water availability for crops and to increase the water use efficiency (WUE), thereby stabilizing high yields. In the RC system, plastic-covered ridges are rainfall harvesting zones and furrows are planting zones. In this study, we optimized the mulching patterns for RC planting to mitigate the risks of drought during crop production in semi-arid agricultural areas. We conducted a four-year field study to determine the effects on corn production of mulching with 0.08-mm plastic film, maize straw, 8% biodegradable film, liquid film, bare furrow, and conventional flat (CF) farming. We found that RC significantly increased (P > 0.05) the soil moisture storage in the top 0–100 cm layer and the topsoil temperature (0–10 cm) during the corn-growing season. Combining RC with mulching further improved the rain-harvesting, moisture-retaining, and yield-increasing effects in furrows. Compared with CF, the four-year average yield increased by 1497.1 kg ha–1 to 2937.3 kg ha–1 using RC with mulch treatments and the WUE increased by 2.3 kg ha–1 mm–1 to 5.1 kg ha–1 mm–1.
Highlights
As maize, potato, and winter wheat by effectively reducing water losses and enhancing the field WUE11,12
The results showed that in the semi-arid area of the Loess Plateau, the rainfall-harvesting effects of the ridges and furrows significantly improved the soil moisture storage (P < 0.05) in the 0–200 cm soil layer under all of the rainfall concentration (RC) treatments compared with conventional flat (CF) farming method
After comparing the moisture storage levels in the different soil layers at depths of 0–200 cm, we found that the water increases occurred mainly at depths of 0–100 cm, whereas the spatial and temporal changes in moisture storage at depths below 100 cm were relatively small, and there were no significant (P < 0.05) differences between the RC treatments and CF, we not show the data of the 100–200 cm depth (Fig. 1)
Summary
As maize, potato, and winter wheat by effectively reducing water losses and enhancing the field WUE11,12. We conducted experiments at the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University field test station in Pengyang, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Area (a typical semi-arid dry-farming area on the Loess Plateau), where we mulched the planting furrows in the RC planting system with maize straw, plastic film, biodegradable film, or liquid film to reduce soil water evaporation and to improve the rain-harvesting effects. In this four-year (2007 to 2010) field study, we analyzed the effects of RC planting on the field water temperature, yield, and WUE under different mulching patterns.
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