Soil Water Content and Crop Yield Effects of Mechanized Conservative Tillage-Cultivation System for Dryland Winter Wheat in the Loess Tableland

To aim directly at the natural resource characteristics and agricultural production reality in the loess tableland, high stubble mulching, subsoiling and ridging with plastic film mulching in furrow planting were combined to form mechanized conservative tillage-cultivation system for dryland winter wheat based on the previous researches. The results show that keeping high wheat stubble and subsoiling in summer fallow period can collect almost all the rain in this period and store over 55% in soil, which is 76.2 mm more than that by conventional tillage. On the basis of storing more water in summer fallow period, adoption of the technique of making ridges with film mulching and seeding in furrows in sowing time can also keep rain water in soil as much as possible during wheat growth, which then increases the soil moisture and further increases yield of wheat, as well as income of farmers.