Abstract
Intercropping is considered a promising system for boosting crop productivity. However, intercropping usually requires higher inputs of resources that emit more CO2. It is unclear whether an improved agricultural pattern could relieve this issue and enhance agricultural sustainability in an arid irrigation area. A field experiment using a well-designed agricultural practice was carried out in northwest China; reduced tillage, coupled with wheat straw residue retention measures, was integrated with a strip intercropping pattern. We determined the crop productivity, water use, economic benefits, and carbon emissions (CEs). The wheat-maize intercropping coupled with straw covering (i.e., NTSI treatment), boosted grain yield by 27–38% and 153–160% more than the conventional monoculture of maize and wheat, respectively, and it also increased by 9.9–11.9% over the conventional intercropping treatment. Similarly, this pattern also improved the water use efficiency by 15.4–22.4% in comparison with the conventional monoculture of maize by 45.7–48.3% in comparison with the conventional monoculture of wheat and by 14.7–15.9% in comparison with the conventional intercropping treatment. Meanwhile, NTSI treatment caused 7.4–13.7% and 37.0–47.7% greater solar energy use efficiency than the conventional monoculture of maize and wheat, respectively. Furthermore, the NTSI treatment had a higher net return (NR) by 54–71% and 281–338% and a higher benefit per cubic meter of water (BPW) by 35–51% and 119–147% more than the conventional monoculture of maize and wheat, respectively. Similarly, it increased the NR and BPW by 8–14% and 14–16% in comparison with the conventional intercropping treatment, respectively. An additional feature of the NTSI treatment is that it reduced CEs by 13.4–23.8% and 7.3–17.5% while improving CE efficiency by 62.6–66.9% and 23.2–33.2% more than the conventional monoculture maize and intercropping treatments, respectively. We can draw a conclusion that intercropping maize and wheat, with a straw covering soil surface, can be used to enhance crop production and NRs while effectively lowering CO2 emissions in arid oasis irrigation region.
Highlights
The gap between food demand and grain production has become larger in recent years because of the continuously increasing demand from a growing population (Godfray et al, 2010)
There was a significant effect of year × treatment interaction on crop yield, and straw retention approaches individually had a significant effect on Grain Yield (GY) of intercropping systems in each year (Figure 2)
NTSI treatment boosted GY by 27 and 38% in 2011 and 2012, compared with CTM treatment; more noticeably, NTSI treatment boosted GY by 153 and 160% compared with CTW treatment, respectively
Summary
The gap between food demand and grain production has become larger in recent years because of the continuously increasing demand from a growing population (Godfray et al, 2010). Crop cultivation in many such areas, typically makes use of the conventional agricultural practices that cause serious soil degradation, water erosion (Chen et al, 2010), and emission of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (West et al, 2010). In the Hexi arid oasis region of northwestern China, the main grain producing area, the annual precipitation during the crop growing season is between 50 and 150 mm, while the annual potential soil water evaporation is typically greater than 2400 mm, causing the agricultural production to rely largely on underground water for irrigation (Yin et al, 2015). The greater agricultural production inputs (such as inorganic fertilizers, plastic film, pesticides, and water) are causing the carbon emissions (CEs) from farmlands to have a negative impact on the environment (Challinor et al, 2014), producing more greenhouse gasses (Burney et al, 2010). A key question is whether we can design an improved farming system that effectively addresses these above issues and, achieve sustainable agriculture in highly populated, natural resourcelimited areas
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