Elsevier

Field Crops Research

Volume 161, May 2014, Pages 137-148
Field Crops Research

Ridge-furrow with full plastic film mulching improves water use efficiency and tuber yields of potato in a semiarid rainfed ecosystem

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2014.02.013Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Assessed potato responses to various ridge-furrow mulching planting patterns in a rain-fed region.

  • Full mulching increased both tuber yields and rain WUE, respectively, by over 70%.

  • Full mulching decreased evaporation during emergence and then increased ET.

  • Full mulching prolonged tuber bulking via increased early season topsoil temperature and moisture.

Abstract

A planting pattern of alternate ridges and furrows with plastic film mulching has been viewed as a best management practice for crop production in the arid and semiarid regions, but there is a lack of insight into the underlying changes in soil–crop water relations on mulching areas and ridge-furrow shapes for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production. A field study with comparisons of three mulching areas and two ridge-furrow shapes was conducted for two years (2009 and 2010) to assess evapotranspiration, water use efficiency, and tuber yields in the semiarid Northwest China. The experiment included five mulching area and ridge-furrow shape combinations: (1) full mulching on double ridges and furrows (DRFFM), (2) full mulching on both ridges and furrows (RFFM), (3) half mulching only on ridges (RFHM), (4) no mulching on ridges and furrows (RFNM), and (5) traditional-flat planting and without mulching as the control (CK). The two full mulching treatments had the best effect on topsoil temperature–moisture, improved emergence rate by 9.3–14.4% and advanced emergence by 8.1–11.7 days (P < 0.05). Full mulching treatments reduced evapotranspiration by about 24.0–45.0% during emergence, but increased it by up to 18.7% thereafter, primarily due to rapid increase of LAI under faster development, and also enhanced root/shoot ratio (P < 0.05). Full mulching produced the highest tuber yields (57.4–78.2% higher than the CK) with higher cost of mulching material and labour than the half or no mulching treatments. The full mulching also resulted in the highest water use efficiency (increased by 56.8–70.3% than the CK). The beneficiary effects became smaller with the decrease of mulching areas. However, the difference between the two full mulching treatments was not significant (P > 0.05) despite there was slightly higher WUE in DRFFM than RFFM. Our results revealed that the full mulching on ridge-furrow planting strategy was effective to increase potato productivity and water use efficiency in the semiarid area of Chinese Loess Plateau.

Graphical abstract

The two years field study assessed potato responses to various ridge-furrow plastic film mulching planting patterns in a rain-fed region. It showed that full mulching on the ridges and furrows (or the large and small ridges) increased both tuber yields and rain WUE, respectively, by over 70%. The full mulched ridges and furrows kept the topsoil warmer and wetter, decreased ET during the early growing season, thus enhanced the percentage of emergence and ensured faster development of seed tubers after planting. The full mulching extended the growth period from seedling to maturation, and enhanced plant height, LAI, R/S ratio and economic benefits of potato.

  1. Download : Download full-size image

Introduction

In the arid and semiarid regions, rare and unpredictable precipitation, high evaporation, and low rainwater use efficiency always constrain agricultural production and sustainable development (Beltrano et al., 1999, Boyer and Westgate, 2004), which severely limits crop yields and as an extreme, without any harvesting (Shan and Chen, 1993, Turner, 2004). These issues have become more serious with the global climate change and its significant impacts on agriculture (Turner, 2011).

Aimed to alleviate these issues, many management strategies have been tested to improve rainwater use efficiency in semiarid regions over the past decades (Boers and Ben-Asher, 1982, Beltrano et al., 1999, Xiao and Wang, 2003), like rainwater harvesting (Zhao et al., 1995, Mzirai and Tumbo, 2010), mulching including plastic, crop straw, gravel-sand cover, etc. (Wang et al., 2011a, Sarolia and Bhardwaj, 2012), drip or supplement irrigation (Lamont et al., 2003, Wang et al., 2011b, Anita and Giovanni, 2012), etc. These practices have become popular to a great extent, especially ridge-furrow system with plastic film mulching retains one of the most effective measures to improve water use efficiency and yields for regions where the irrigation is not available (Gan et al., 2013). Plastic film mulching has mainly been used in maize (Zegada-Lizarazu and Berliner, 2011), wheat (Li et al., 2004), cotton (Zhou et al., 2012) and potato (Kar, 2003, Wang et al., 2008, Zhao et al., 2012). Potato is a staple and economic crop in Chinese Loess Plateau, and the optimum configuration of ridge-furrow ratio (39–48 cm width ridge and 60 cm furrows alternating) has spread in potato planting in these areas (Wang et al., 2008).

The film mulching practice affects crop growth and development in various ways. It decreases the amount of water loss due to evaporation (Liakatas et al., 1986, Wang et al., 2008, Li et al., 2013), enhances soil water infiltration (Gan et al., 2013), distributes soil moisture again and therefore relieves water stress to some degree (Li et al., 2004, Chakraborty et al., 2008). Owing to many advantages, mulching improves crops yields both in quantity or quality (Kar, 2003, Li et al., 2004, Ramakrishna et al., 2006, Wang et al., 2008, Luis et al., 2011), and increases water use efficiency (Wang et al., 2008, Zegada-Lizarazu and Berliner, 2011). The ridge-furrow film mulching was effective in enhancing the topsoil temperature in the early growing season when temperatures are low in spring (Gan et al., 2013). The effect of film mulching on topsoil temperature gradually diminishes with plant development for some crop, especially in potato (Wang et al., 2005, Zhao et al., 2012). However, mulching for the whole growth duration can considerably lower the yields because of consistently higher temperatures in midsummer, and the plants easily suffer from the heat stress (Li et al., 2004, Zhao et al., 2012). Therefore, some measures must be applied, such as mulching soil surface with crop straw (Chakraborty et al., 2008), covering plastic film with the soil (Fan et al., 2012), or removing the mulch (Zhao et al., 2012).

Despite all the above, the mechanisms responsible for the improved water use efficiency remain unknown so far (Gan et al., 2013). Most work will still have to be done, we must focus on the influence mechanisms and relationships between mulching and soil micro-environment, biomass and yields, especially soil water storage and water use efficiency, and then find a more effective technique to adapt dry conditions. How to enhance rainwater use efficiency? It is the most critical issue in developing local potato industry under the climate change. We therefore conducted a field experiment to examine the influence of varying mulching areas and ridge-furrow shapes on growth, evapotranspiration, root/shoot ratio and rainwater use efficiency of potato. Specifically, the objectives of this field study were to (1) investigate the influence of varying mulching areas and shapes on soil water storage and evapotranspiration during the growing season, (2) assess the impacts of mulching areas and shapes on tuber bulking and water use efficiency, (3) compare the effectiveness of the two full mulching patterns (between double ridge-furrow and ridge-furrow) on enhancing soil temperature and soil water conservation, and (4) determine an appropriate film mulching mode for maximum water use efficiency and tuber yields in semiarid area.

Section snippets

Description of the experiment site

A field experiment was carried out in Dingxi Arid Meteorology and Ecological Environment Experimental Station of the Institute of Arid Meteorology of China Meteorological Administration (IAM, CMA) in 2009 and 2010. The location represents a typical semi-arid rain-fed agriculture area and has one harvest per year. Table 1 and Fig. 1 are the brief description of this experimental site.

Field experiment design

In this study, two shapes of ridge-furrow rainwater collecting systems and three mulching areas were tested for

Soil moisture

The total rainfall over the growing season (from sowing to harvest) was 245.5 mm in 2009 and 243.0 mm in 2010, much lower than the average of 309 mm for the corresponding period during the past 30 years (Fig. 1). Erratic rainfall occurred in 2009 with minimal amounts before July but plentiful after July, however there was similar rainwater before and after July in 2010. From early March to end of May (about two months before planting and one month after planting), there were total rainfall of 40.8 

Discussion

Full mulching with plastic film on the ridge-furrow planting patterns improved tuber yields and WUE, with increased economic benefits. The benefit of film mulching became smaller with the decrease of mulching areas. The shapes of ridges and furrows had little effect on yields and WUE although DRFFM had higher value than RFFM. This was probably owing to the following reasons. Firstly, full film mulching ridge-furrow increased temperature–moisture of topsoil during the early growing season.

Conclusions

Under the conditions of scarce rainfall during the early growing season, full mulching with plastic film on the ridge-furrow was an advantaged technique for enhancing potato yields and WUE. The full mulched ridges and furrows kept the topsoil warmer and wetter, decreased ET during the early growing season, thus enhanced the percentage of emergence and ensured faster development of seed tubers after planting. The full mulching extended the growth period from seedling to maturation, and enhanced

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB955304), Public Welfare (Weather) Special Research Project of the China Meteorological Administration (GYHY201106029), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41275118) and Arid Meteorology Research Fund (IAM201309). This was a joint contribution between Institute of Arid Meteorology of China Meteorological Administration and the Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre (ECORC) of Agriculture and Agri-Food

References (37)

  • F.X. Wang et al.

    Effects of drip irrigation regimes on potato tuber yield and quality under plastic mulch in arid Northwestern China

    Field Crops Res.

    (2011)
  • X.L. Wang et al.

    Increasing potato yields with additional water and increased soil temperature

    Agr. Water Manage.

    (2005)
  • H. Zhao et al.

    Plastic film mulch for half growing-season maximized WUE and yield of potato via moisture temperature improvement in a semi-arid agroecosystem

    Agr. Water Manage.

    (2012)
  • I. Anita et al.

    Tuber yield and irrigation water productivity in early potatoes as affected by irrigation regime

    Agr. Water Manage.

    (2012)
  • T. Belehu

    Production and partitioning of dry matter in three sweet potato cultivars

    Agronomical and Physiological Factors Affecting Growth, Development and Yield of Sweet Potato in Ethiopia

    (2003)
  • J. Beltrano et al.

    Drought stress syndrome in wheat is provoked ethylene evolution imbalance and reversed by rewatering, aminoethoxyvinylglycine, or sodium benzoate

    J. Plant Growth Regul.

    (1999)
  • J.S. Boyer et al.

    Grain yields with limited water

    J. Exp. Bot.

    (2004)
  • J. Fan et al.

    Germination characteristics and seedling emergence of switchgrass with different agricultural practices under arid conditions in China

    Crop Sci.

    (2012)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text