Climate Change and Dryland Agricultural Ecosystem Management

Maize yield and precipitation use efficiency responses to
furrow-planting and wheat straw mulching system in rainfed
regions of northern China
Tongchao Wang, Li Wei and Youcai Xiong*
MOE Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou,
China,730000.
Abstract:In the rain-fed areas of northern China, maize is staple crop because it is well adapted to
high temperature; however, low and variable rainfall and high evaportranspiration rates are prone to
water-limited environments during growing season, making yield unsustainable. Moreover, the rainy
season does not parallel the growth periods with maize growth. In this study, we tested the
performance of furrow-planting pattern and straw mulching system in a rain-fed area of northern
China under a winter wheat-summer maize doubling rotation. Four treatments were established and
conducted on a rain-fed farmland for 2 consecutive years (2005-2006 to 2006-2007): conventional flat
planting (F), furrow planting between two ridges (B), flat planting with wheat straw mulched (FS),
and furrow planting between two ridges with wheat straw mulched (BS). Grain yield, soil water
content, precipitation use efficiency (PUEY), and LAI were measured through all growing season
during the study periods. Values to all the parameters measured were very close ridge tillage and
wheat straw mulching practice across the rainfall variability within growing seasons. Across two years,
ridge tillage combined with furrow-planting increased maize yield and PUEY by 430 kg hm-2 (7.3 %)
and 1.5 kg mm-1 hm-2 (10.7 %), as compared with conventional flat-planting, whereas
furrow-planting, coupled with mulching straw practice, increased yield and PUEY by an additional
16.9 % and 19.4 %, respectively. Compared with F from jointing to maturity, the LAI values of BS
were more significant higher 55.6% to 26.1% in 2006, and 81.4% to 21.7% in 2007, respectively.
Thus, furrow-planting combining with straw coving ridges performed best under maize seasonal
rainfall