Effects of Soil Management on Soil Properties and Crop Yield

This paper investigated the effects of various tillage and straw mulch on soil properties, soil water status and crop yield of summer maize through field experiments. Treatments included conventional tillage, subsoiling, straw mulch, tied ridges, shallow pits surface and no-tillage. Straw mulch to summer maize significantly increased soil water storage，crop yield and water use efficiency compared with non-mulch treatment. Subsoiling effectively disrupted the plough pan and decreased the soil bulk density resulting in increase of the length，depth and mass of crop root，the yield of summer maize and water use efficiency following subsoiling increased. No-tillage showed the benefit of reducing evaporation resulting in higher soil water content at the establishment stage of maize and produced no yield reduction.