Effect of ridge tillage, no-tillage, and conventional tillage on soil temperature, water use, and crop performance in cold and semi-arid areas in Northeast China
Jin He A , Hongwen Li A C D , N. J. Kuhn B , Qingjie Wang A and Xuemin Zhang A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Agricultural Engineering, China Agricultural University. PO Box 46, Beijing, 100083, China.
B Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland.
C School of Light Industry and Agriculture Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, China.
D Corresponding author. Email: lhwen@cau.edu.cn
Australian Journal of Soil Research 48(8) 737-744 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR09155
Submitted: 31 August 2009 Accepted: 11 May 2010 Published: 19 November 2010
Abstract
In cold and semi-arid Northeast China, insufficient soil accumulative temperature and low water use efficiency (WUE) are the limiting factors for the further development of agriculture. Ridge tillage (RT) has been proposed to improve soil temperature and water conservation. Data from a 3-year field experiment conducted at two locations (Sujiatun and Lanxi) in Northeast China were used to compare RT, no-tillage (NT), and conventional tillage (CT) in a spring maize cropping system. At both sites, RT and NT significantly (P < 0.05) increased mean soil temperature to 0.10 m depth, relative to CT, by 0.7–2.4°C in the cold season during the spring maize growing stage. Mean soil moisture depletion in the RT treatment was greater by 1.2–4.1% (Sujiatun) and 0.6–3.0% (Lanxi) than in NT and CT, respectively. Mean maize yields over 3 years for RT were ~9.9% greater than for CT, whereas the yield advantage in the NT treatment was only slight. In Sujiatun, WUE was 8.0% and 8.6% greater under RT than under NT and CT, respectively, and in Lanxi, WUE was 7.7% and 9.6% greater under RT than NT and CT. Ridge tillage is recommended to the farmers to obtain higher crop yield and WUE in Northeast China.
Additional keywords: maize, ridge tillage, soil temperature, water use efficiency, yield.
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