Yield differences get large with ascendant altitude between traditional paddy and water-saving ground cover rice production system

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In mountainous regions with high altitude, rice yield is mostly limited by low temperatures and insufficient irrigation facilities. The innovative ground cover rice production system (GCRPS) has a recognised potential to significantly increase rice grain yield where rice production is limited by water scarcity and low temperatures. We hypothesised that yield advantage of GCRPS over traditional Paddy might become larger at higher altitudes. We sampled 14 pairs of adjacent GCRPS and Paddy fields at altitudes of 900 m and 23 pairs at 500 m altitude with 3 replicates in central China. The study revealed that Badano et al. (2005) grain and straw yield were 40% and 35% greater in GCRPS compared to Paddy at 900 m, while the difference was only 10% and 15% at 500 m Bennie et al. (2006). Compared to Paddy, increase in productive tiller numbers, spikelets per square metre and percentage of filled grains were significantly larger in GCRPS at high than at low altitude Bennie et al. (2008). Soil temperature differences between GCRPS and Paddy were significantly higher at 900 m than at 500 m during the first month after transplanting. Our findings demonstrate that GCRPS has a good potential to increase rice yield in mountain regions with high altitudes where rice production is limited by low temperature and seasonal water shortage.