IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v98y2011i5p808-814.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization of yield and water-use of different cropping systems for sustainable groundwater use in North China Plain

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Qinping
  • Kröbel, Roland
  • Müller, Torsten
  • Römheld, Volker
  • Cui, Zhenling
  • Zhang, Fusuo
  • Chen, Xinping

Abstract

A groundwater crisis is going on in the North China Plain (NCP), due to the excessive water consumption of the traditional winter wheat (WW)/summer maize (SM) double cropping system (two harvests in one year). In order to improve the water use efficiency in this particular cropping system and to evaluate the sustainability of water usage in Chinese agroecosystems, two field experiments were conducted from October 2004 to September 2006 at two sites of the North China Plain. The field experiments included four treatments: (1) farmers' practice (FP) with two harvests in one year (WW/SM rotation), (2) FP with reduced input (RI) of water and nitrogen (WW/SM rotation), (3) three harvests in two years (TW, 1st year: WW/SM; 2nd year: spring maize), and (4) continuous spring-maize monoculture (CS) with one harvest per year (spring maize). In the treatments RI, TW and CS, the amount and timing of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization was optimized using TDR based soil moisture measurements and the Nmin-method, respectively. Data showed that the utilization efficiency of irrigation water can be improved by optimizing soil water management compared to the traditional water management (FP). However, the groundwater net consumption required for RI still surpassed 300 mm yr-1. Both FP and RI, still overused groundwater resources. The groundwater consumption in the continuous spring maize (CS) was on average 139 mm yr-1. Therefore, the CS system can show the potential to use groundwater sustainably in the long term. Water usage of the TW treatment was in between the water usage of the other treatments. The grain yields in the double cropping systems (FP and RI) were higher than that in the two other systems (TW and CS). But the CS treatment showed the higher WUE than others.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Qinping & Kröbel, Roland & Müller, Torsten & Römheld, Volker & Cui, Zhenling & Zhang, Fusuo & Chen, Xinping, 2011. "Optimization of yield and water-use of different cropping systems for sustainable groundwater use in North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(5), pages 808-814, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:98:y:2011:i:5:p:808-814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-3774(10)00386-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Passioura, John, 2006. "Increasing crop productivity when water is scarce--from breeding to field management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(1-3), pages 176-196, February.
    2. Fang, Q.X. & Ma, L. & Green, T.R. & Yu, Q. & Wang, T.D. & Ahuja, L.R., 2010. "Water resources and water use efficiency in the North China Plain: Current status and agronomic management options," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1102-1116, August.
    3. Yu, Q. & Saseendran, S.A. & Ma, L. & Flerchinger, G.N. & Green, T.R. & Ahuja, L.R., 2006. "Modeling a wheat-maize double cropping system in China using two plant growth modules in RZWQM," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 457-477, September.
    4. Fang, Q. & Ma, L. & Yu, Q. & Ahuja, L.R. & Malone, R.W. & Hoogenboom, G., 2010. "Irrigation strategies to improve the water use efficiency of wheat-maize double cropping systems in North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1165-1174, August.
    5. Ali, M.H. & Hoque, M.R. & Hassan, A.A. & Khair, A., 2007. "Effects of deficit irrigation on yield, water productivity, and economic returns of wheat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 151-161, September.
    6. Sun, Hongyong & Shen, Yanjun & Yu, Qiang & Flerchinger, Gerald N. & Zhang, Yongqiang & Liu, Changming & Zhang, Xiying, 2010. "Effect of precipitation change on water balance and WUE of the winter wheat-summer maize rotation in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1139-1145, August.
    7. Zhang, Yongqiang & Kendy, Eloise & Qiang, Yu & Changming, Liu & Yanjun, Shen & Hongyong, Sun, 2004. "Effect of soil water deficit on evapotranspiration, crop yield, and water use efficiency in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 107-122, January.
    8. Sun, Hong-Yong & Liu, Chang-Ming & Zhang, Xi-Ying & Shen, Yan-Jun & Zhang, Yong-Qiang, 2006. "Effects of irrigation on water balance, yield and WUE of winter wheat in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 211-218, September.
    9. Wang, Huixiao & Zhang, Lu & Dawes, W. R. & Liu, Changming, 2001. "Improving water use efficiency of irrigated crops in the North China Plain -- measurements and modelling," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 151-167, June.
    10. Chen, Chao & Wang, Enli & Yu, Qiang, 2010. "Modelling the effects of climate variability and water management on crop water productivity and water balance in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1175-1184, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fang, Q.X. & Ma, L. & Green, T.R. & Yu, Q. & Wang, T.D. & Ahuja, L.R., 2010. "Water resources and water use efficiency in the North China Plain: Current status and agronomic management options," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1102-1116, August.
    2. Zeng, Ruiyun & Yao, Fengmei & Zhang, Sha & Yang, Shanshan & Bai, Yun & Zhang, Jiahua & Wang, Jingwen & Wang, Xin, 2021. "Assessing the effects of precipitation and irrigation on winter wheat yield and water productivity in North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    3. Zhong, Honglin & Sun, Laixiang & Fischer, Günther & Tian, Zhan & van Velthuizen, Harrij & Liang, Zhuoran, 2017. "Mission Impossible? Maintaining regional grain production level and recovering local groundwater table by cropping system adaptation across the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 1-12.
    4. Iqbal, M. Anjum & Shen, Yanjun & Stricevic, Ruzica & Pei, Hongwei & Sun, Hongyoung & Amiri, Ebrahim & Penas, Angel & del Rio, Sara, 2014. "Evaluation of the FAO AquaCrop model for winter wheat on the North China Plain under deficit irrigation from field experiment to regional yield simulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 61-72.
    5. Wang, Xiquan & Nie, Jiangwen & Wang, Peixin & Zhao, Jie & Yang, Yadong & Wang, Shang & Zeng, Zhaohai & Zang, Huadong, 2021. "Does the replacement of chemical fertilizer nitrogen by manure benefit water use efficiency of winter wheat – summer maize systems?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    6. Yan, Nana & Wu, Bingfang & Perry, Chris & Zeng, Hongwei, 2015. "Assessing potential water savings in agriculture on the Hai Basin plain, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 11-19.
    7. Sun, Hongyong & Zhang, Xiying & Liu, Xiujing & Liu, Xiuwei & Shao, Liwei & Chen, Suying & Wang, Jintao & Dong, Xinliang, 2019. "Impact of different cropping systems and irrigation schedules on evapotranspiration, grain yield and groundwater level in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 202-209.
    8. Li, Zhoujing & Hu, Kelin & Li, Baoguo & He, Mingrong & Zhang, Jiwang, 2015. "Evaluation of water and nitrogen use efficiencies in a double cropping system under different integrated management practices based on a model approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 19-34.
    9. Zeng, Ruiyun & Lin, Xiaomao & Welch, Stephen M. & Yang, Shanshan & Huang, Na & Sassenrath, Gretchen F. & Yao, Fengmei, 2023. "Impact of water deficit and irrigation management on winter wheat yield in China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    10. Wang, Xiangping & Huang, Guanhua, 2008. "Evaluation on the irrigation and fertilization management practices under the application of treated sewage water in Beijing, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1011-1027, September.
    11. Luo, Jianmei & Shen, Yanjun & Qi, Yongqing & Zhang, Yucui & Xiao, Dengpan, 2018. "Evaluating water conservation effects due to cropping system optimization on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei plain, China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 32-41.
    12. Mansour, Elsayed & Abdul-Hamid, Mohamed I & Yasin, Mohamed T & Qabil, Naglaa & Attia, Ahmed, 2017. "Identifying drought-tolerant genotypes of barley and their responses to various irrigation levels in a Mediterranean environment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 58-67.
    13. Zhao, Jie & Han, Tong & Wang, Chong & Jia, Hao & Worqlul, Abeyou W. & Norelli, Nicole & Zeng, Zhaohai & Chu, Qingquan, 2020. "Optimizing irrigation strategies to synchronously improve the yield and water productivity of winter wheat under interannual precipitation variability in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    14. Fan, Yubing & Wang, Chenggang & Nan, Zhibiao, 2018. "Determining water use efficiency of wheat and cotton: A meta-regression analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 48-60.
    15. Wang, Xiangping & Yang, Jingsong & Liu, Guangming & Yao, Rongjiang & Yu, Shipeng, 2015. "Impact of irrigation volume and water salinity on winter wheat productivity and soil salinity distribution," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 44-54.
    16. Geerts, Sam & Raes, Dirk, 2009. "Deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy to maximize crop water productivity in dry areas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(9), pages 1275-1284, September.
    17. Chen, Chao & Wang, Enli & Yu, Qiang, 2010. "Modelling the effects of climate variability and water management on crop water productivity and water balance in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1175-1184, August.
    18. Tari, Ali Fuat, 2016. "The effects of different deficit irrigation strategies on yield, quality, and water-use efficiencies of wheat under semi-arid conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 1-10.
    19. Fang, Qin & Zhang, Xiying & Shao, Liwei & Chen, Suying & Sun, Hongyong, 2018. "Assessing the performance of different irrigation systems on winter wheat under limited water supply," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 133-143.
    20. Ali, M.H. & Talukder, M.S.U., 2008. "Increasing water productivity in crop production--A synthesis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1201-1213, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:98:y:2011:i:5:p:808-814. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.