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vol. 4, nr. 1 (2004)
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Conservation tillage practices on a dryland winter wheat field in northern China: a soil-water balance study using a trimeÒ tube probe
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Wim M. Cornelis1, Huijun Wu2, Wouter Schiettecatte1, Ke Jin2, Roger Hartmann1, Donald Gabriels1, Dianxiong Cai2
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1 Department of Soil Management and Soil Care, International Centre for Eremology,Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, Ghent, Belgium |
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2 Soil and Fertilizer Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 30 Baishiqiao Road, Beijing 100081, P.R. China |
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vol. 4 (2004), nr. 1,
pp. 25-36
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abstract:
Soil erosion by water is a severe problem in the eastern loess belt of northern China and is to a large extent associated with improper soil tillage practices. Changing the current tillage practices could therefore reduce soil loss. However, this will also affect the water balance and hence the available water for crop growth, particularly in dryland farming systems. A field study was carried out on five plots on a slope field near Luoyang, Henan province, P.R. China, in order to evaluate the water balance under different soil tillage practices on a winter wheat field with a silty loam soil texture. Five tillage practices were applied: conventional tillage, no tillage, subsoiling, reduced tillage, and cultivation of an additional summer crop. The difference in water storage was determined using a TrimeÒ Tube Probe. From data from two consecutive agricultural years between 1999 and 2001, it was concluded that subsoiling resulted in the highest increase in water storage and in the lowest evaporation during the fallow period between harvesting and sowing of the winter wheat. A two-crop rotation with peanuts also showed promising results. The no-tillage and conventional tillage gave intermediate results, whereas the reduced tillage was the worst alternative.
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keywords:
dryland, silty loam, conservation tillage, soil-water balance, TrimeÒ Tube Probe
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original in:
Polish
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