Rainwater efficient use of the cellar-greenhouse system on slope land in hilly semi-arid area of North China

Abstract

Water resources in semi-arid and arid regions are the most strongly limiting factor of the growth for plants. Rainwater efficient use is one of the focuses of the water resources research. In this paper, an experiment was conducted at Ka Zuo Research Station of Ecological Agriculture, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the hilly semi-arid area of North China. It aimed at studying the efficient use of rainwater harvesting of the cellar-greenhouse system (CGS). Results showed that, on average, the rainwater harvesting efficiency and sediment yield of the CGS were 5.7–15.7% and 865.8–1794.0 kg/ha, respectively, and that the rainwater harvesting efficiency and sediment yield of the CGS on slopes of 6° and 7° were significantly higher than that of the CGS on slope of 4.5°. In the CGS, over 52.1% of the irrigation rainwater was saved; the irrigation efficiency was significantly improved, by 21.15 kg/m<sup>3</sup>/ha on average, for sub-surface irrigation. Moreover, compared with flood irrigation, sub-surface irrigation could increase vegetable yield by 8.1–22.3%, improve output value of rainwater by 116.8–164.6%, and furthermore, the environmental conditions of the greenhouse on slope land were improved obviously. The mean unit area value of the CGS was about 13.5 times higher than that of the traditional land use system. By using the CGS, three goals, which were reducing water and soil losses, getting high rainwater use efficiency and gaining corresponding benefits, were realized.