Effect of alternate partial root-zone irrigation on nitrogen and water use efficiency of potato

Alternate partial root-zone irrigation (APRI) has been established as an efficient technology to save water, but its effectiveness in saving nutrient and reducing the impact on soil and water environment was less understood. In order to study the effect of full irrigation and alternate partial root-zone irrigation (APRI) on water and nitrogen use efficiency of potato, a field experiment was conducted. The irrigation amount of the whole growth stage of potato, residual nitrogen in plant, residual nitrogen in soil, water and nitrogen use efficiency with different treatments were analyzed. The results showed that after the harvest, the yields were no significant differences between APRI and full irrigation. But the values of irrigation water use efficiency with APRI treatments were higher than that with full irrigation treatments (p=0.05). The residual nitrate nitrogen and mineral nitrogen of soil in different soil layers with full irrigation treatments were higher than those with APRI treatments. The values of nitrogen use efficiency in crop and farmland of APRI (I, K) were significantly higher than those of full irrigation (J, L) (p=0.05). Therefore, APRI treatments can not only improve the water use efficiency of crops significantly, but also improve mineral nitrogen availability, which are beneficial to crop uptaking and utilizing nitrogen from soil.