IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0127402.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Yield Responses of Wheat to Mulching Practices in Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau

Author

Listed:
  • Li-fang Wang
  • Juan Chen
  • Zhou-ping Shangguan

Abstract

Improving farming practices of soil and water conservation has profound effects on the yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in dryland farming regions of the Loess Plateau in China. Mulching has proven to be an effective practice to increase crop yield, and possibly contribute to replenishing groundwater. This evaluation study collected and analyzed the data of 1849 observations published in 38 papers using meta-analysis to investigate effects of the mulching practices on wheat yield in terms of different rainfall and regions in comparison with conventional tillage. The main results of the study follow. The effects of the mulching practices were ranked in the order of RFM (ridge–furrow mulching) > MTMC (mulching with two materials combined) > MOM (mulching with other materials) > WSM (wheat straw mulching) > FM (flat mulching). The effects of the mulching practices at the different levels of rainfall during the wheat growing season were in the order: ( (> 250 mm) > (150–250 mm). The effects of the mulching practices in the different regions were in the order of Henan > Shanxi > Shaanxi > Gansu. WSM, MTMC and FM performed better in improving wheat yield for rainfall of 250 mm during the growing season, respectively. The wheat yield with FM, MTMC, MOM and MOM was higher than those with the other mulching practices in Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan and Shanxi. The wheat yield with RFM was 27.4% higher than that with FM, indicating that RFM was the most effective practice to improve wheat yield among all the practices. These findings have important implications for choosing appropriate crop field management to improve wheat yield.

Suggested Citation

  • Li-fang Wang & Juan Chen & Zhou-ping Shangguan, 2015. "Yield Responses of Wheat to Mulching Practices in Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0127402
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127402
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127402&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0127402?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Makurira, H. & Savenije, H.H.G. & Uhlenbrook, S. & Rockström, J. & Senzanje, A., 2011. "The effect of system innovations on water productivity in subsistence rainfed agricultural systems in semi-arid Tanzania," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(11), pages 1696-1703, September.
    2. Li, Xiao-Yan & Gong, Jia-Dong, 2002. "Effects of different ridge:furrow ratios and supplemental irrigation on crop production in ridge and furrow rainfall harvesting system with mulches," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 243-254, April.
    3. Huang, Yilong & Chen, Liding & Fu, Bojie & Huang, Zhilin & Gong, Jie, 2005. "The wheat yields and water-use efficiency in the Loess Plateau: straw mulch and irrigation effects," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 209-222, April.
    4. Chen, Suyin & Zhang, Xiying & Sun, Hongyong & Ren, Tusheng & Wang, Yanmei, 2010. "Effects of winter wheat row spacing on evapotranpsiration, grain yield and water use efficiency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1126-1132, August.
    5. Sharma, Sat Pal & Leskovar, Daniel I. & Crosby, Kevin M. & Volder, Astrid & Ibrahim, A.M.H., 2014. "Root growth, yield, and fruit quality responses of reticulatus and inodorus melons (Cucumis melo L.) to deficit subsurface drip irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 75-85.
    6. Richter, G.M. & Semenov, M.A., 2005. "Modelling impacts of climate change on wheat yields in England and Wales: assessing drought risks," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 77-97, April.
    7. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Shaohui & Wang, Haidong & Sun, Xin & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Fucang & Zheng, Jing & Li, Yuepeng, 2021. "Effects of farming practices on yield and crop water productivity of wheat, maize and potato in China: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    2. Han, Xuyang & Feng, Yu & Zhao, Jie & Ren, Aixia & Lin, Wen & Sun, Min & Gao, Zhiqiang, 2022. "Hydrothermal conditions impact yield, yield gap and water use efficiency of dryland wheat under different mulching practice in the Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Chai, Yuwei & Chai, Qiang & Yang, Changgang & Chen, Yuzhang & Li, Rui & Li, Yawei & Chang, Lei & Lan, Xuemei & Cheng, Hongbo & Chai, Shouxi, 2022. "Plastic film mulching increases yield, water productivity, and net income of rain-fed winter wheat compared with no mulching in semiarid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Zhang, Guangxin & Dai, Rongcheng & Ma, Wenzhuo & Fan, Hengzhi & Meng, Wenhui & Han, Juan & Liao, Yuncheng, 2022. "Optimizing the ridge–furrow ratio and nitrogen application rate can increase the grain yield and water use efficiency of rain-fed spring maize in the Loess Plateau region of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    5. Wang, Naijiang & Chen, Haixin & Ding, Dianyuan & Zhang, Tibin & Li, Cheng & Luo, Xiaoqi & Chu, Xiaosheng & Feng, Hao & Wei, Yongsheng & Siddique, Kadambot H.M., 2022. "Plastic film mulching affects field water balance components, grain yield, and water productivity of rainfed maize in the Loess Plateau, China: A synthetic analysis of multi-site observations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    6. Zhiqiang Liu & Shengwei Zhang & Wenjie Fan & Lei Huang & Xiaojing Zhang & Meng Luo & Shuai Wang & Lin Yang, 2024. "Associations between Surface Deformation and Groundwater Storage in Different Landscape Areas of the Loess Plateau, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Zhang, Guangxin & Mo, Fei & Shah, Farooq & Meng, Wenhui & Liao, Yuncheng & Han, Juan, 2021. "Ridge-furrow configuration significantly improves soil water availability, crop water use efficiency, and grain yield in dryland agroecosystems of the Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).

    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. He, Zhihao & Gong, Kaiyuan & Zhang, Zhiliang & Dong, Wenbiao & Feng, Hao & Yu, Qiang & He, Jianqiang, 2022. "What is the past, present, and future of scientific research on the Yellow River Basin? —A bibliometric analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    2. Liu, Yi & Li, Shiqing & Chen, Fang & Yang, Shenjiao & Chen, Xinping, 2010. "Soil water dynamics and water use efficiency in spring maize (Zea mays L.) fields subjected to different water management practices on the Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(5), pages 769-775, May.
    3. Gu, Xiao-Bo & Li, Yuan-Nong & Du, Ya-Dan, 2018. "Effects of ridge-furrow film mulching and nitrogen fertilization on growth, seed yield and water productivity of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) in Northwestern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 60-70.
    4. Su, Ziyou & Zhang, Jinsong & Wu, Wenliang & Cai, Dianxiong & Lv, Junjie & Jiang, Guanghui & Huang, Jian & Gao, Jun & Hartmann, Roger & Gabriels, Donald, 2007. "Effects of conservation tillage practices on winter wheat water-use efficiency and crop yield on the Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 307-314, February.
    5. Zwart, Sander J. & Bastiaanssen, Wim G.M. & de Fraiture, Charlotte & Molden, David J., 2010. "A global benchmark map of water productivity for rainfed and irrigated wheat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(10), pages 1617-1627, October.
    6. Liu, Xiaoli & Wang, Yandong & Yan, Xiaoqun & Hou, Huizhi & Liu, Pei & Cai, Tie & Zhang, Peng & Jia, Zhikuan & Ren, Xiaolong & Chen, Xiaoli, 2020. "Appropriate ridge-furrow ratio can enhance crop production and resource use efficiency by improving soil moisture and thermal condition in a semi-arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Zhang, Jiyang & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang & Wang, Jinglei & Shen, Xiaojun & Liu, Xiaofei, 2007. "Effects of different planting patterns on water use and yield performance of winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai plain of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 41-47, August.
    8. Jia, Qianmin & Sun, Lefeng & Ali, Shahzad & Zhang, Yan & Liu, Donghua & Kamran, Muhammad & Zhang, Peng & Jia, Zhikuan & Ren, Xiaolong, 2018. "Effect of planting density and pattern on maize yield and rainwater use efficiency in the Loess Plateau in China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 19-32.
    9. Yuying Pan & Xuebiao Pan & Tan Zi & Qi Hu & Jing Wang & Guolin Han & Jialin Wang & Zhihua Pan, 2019. "Optimal Ridge–Furrow Ratio for Maximum Drought Resilience of Sunflower in Semi-Arid Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Abdul Ghaffar Khan & Muhammad Imran & Anwar-ul-Hassan Khan & Ali Fares & Jiří Šimůnek & Tanveer Ul-Haq & Abdulaziz Abdullah Alsahli & Mohammed Nasser Alyemeni & Shafaqat Ali, 2021. "Performance of Spring and Summer-Sown Maize under Different Irrigation Strategies in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Dutta, S. K & Laing, Alison M. & Kumar, S. & Gathala, Mahesh K. & Singh, Ajoy K. & Gaydon, D.S. & Poulton, P., 2020. "Improved water management practices improve cropping system profitability and smallholder farmers’ incomes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    12. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    13. David O. Yawson & Barry J. Mulholland & Tom Ball & Michael O. Adu & Sushil Mohan & Philip J. White, 2017. "Effect of Climate and Agricultural Land Use Changes on UK Feed Barley Production and Food Security to the 2050s," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-14, October.
    14. Zwart, Sander J. & Bastiaanssen, Wim G. M., 2004. "Review of measured crop water productivity values for irrigated wheat, rice, cotton and maize," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 115-133, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Abd El-Wahed, M.H. & Ali, E.A., 2013. "Effect of irrigation systems, amounts of irrigation water and mulching on corn yield, water use efficiency and net profit," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 64-71.
    17. Lv, Zhaoyan & Diao, Ming & Li, Weihua & Cai, Jian & Zhou, Qin & Wang, Xiao & Dai, Tingbo & Cao, Weixing & Jiang, Dong, 2019. "Impacts of lateral spacing on the spatial variations in water use and grain yield of spring wheat plants within different rows in the drip irrigation system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 252-261.
    18. Ali, Shahzad & Jan, Amanullah & Zhang, Peng & Khan, Muhammad Numan & Cai, Tei & Wei, Ting & Ren, Xiaolong & Jia, Qianmin & Han, Qingfang & Jia, Zhikuan, 2016. "Effects of ridge-covering mulches on soil water storage and maize production under simulated rainfall in semiarid regions of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 1-11.
    19. Duyen Nhat Lam Tran & Tien Dinh Nguyen & Thuy Thu Pham & Roberto F. Rañola & Thinh An Nguyen, 2021. "Improving Irrigation Water Use Efficiency of Robusta Coffee ( Coffea canephora ) Production in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    20. Zhao, Nana & Liu, Yu & Cai, Jiabing & Paredes, Paula & Rosa, Ricardo D. & Pereira, Luis S., 2013. "Dual crop coefficient modelling applied to the winter wheat–summer maize crop sequence in North China Plain: Basal crop coefficients and soil evaporation component," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 93-105.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0127402. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.