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55 Results Found

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,006 Views
16 Pages

Ridge-Furrow Mulching Enhances Capture and Utilization of Rainfall for Improved Maize Production under Rain-Fed Conditions

  • Muhammad Mansoor Javaid,
  • Hussah I. M. AlGwaiz,
  • Hasnain Waheed,
  • Muhammad Ashraf,
  • Athar Mahmood,
  • Feng-Min Li,
  • Kotb A. Attia,
  • Muhammad Ather Nadeem,
  • Muneera D. F. AlKahtani and
  • Sajid Fiaz
  • + 2 authors

14 May 2022

The capture and utilization of rainwater by crops under various mulching conditions have great importance in agriculture production systems, especially in dry-prone regions. Understanding the effect of mulching on rainwater use efficiency growth and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
668 Views
15 Pages

Effects of Ridge-Furrow Film Mulching Patterns on Soil Bacterial Diversity in a Continuous Potato Cropping System

  • Shujuan Jiao,
  • Yichen Kang,
  • Weina Zhang,
  • Yuhui Liu,
  • Hong Li,
  • Wenlin Li and
  • Shuhao Qin

24 July 2025

Soil bacteria drive biogeochemical cycles and influence disease suppression, playing pivotal roles in sustainable agriculture. Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing, we assessed how six ridge-furrow film mulching patterns affect soil bacterial diversity in...

  • Article
  • Open Access
981 Views
22 Pages

30 September 2025

In arid areas, the combined use of plastic sheeting under gravel-sand mulch on ridge-furrow planting systems is an emerging practice to minimize soil water evaporation and micro-plastic pollution. In this study, we conducted a two-year field experime...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,803 Views
17 Pages

15 June 2024

The ridge–furrow with plastic film mulching (RF) system has been widely adopted in rain-fed crop planting due to its potential to enhance crop yield and water use efficiency. However, the impact of the RF system on maize lodging resistance, par...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,979 Views
18 Pages

8 September 2022

Soil water and nitrogen are two important factors in the agro-ecosystem of the Loess Plateau, China. The ridge-furrow maize system with plastic mulch (RFPM) is a widely used measure to increase crop yield in the Loess Plateau area. The purpose of thi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,832 Views
13 Pages

10 June 2022

Commercial humic fertilizers (humates) can be used to improve carbon sequestration. In this study, a 3-year field trial (2016–2018) employed four treatments to investigate the mechanism by which humate increases carbon sequestration in fluvo-aq...

  • Article
  • Open Access
310 Views
23 Pages

8 December 2025

Optimizing field cropping practices to improve nitrogen use efficiency is imperative to promote intensive and sustainable wheat production. As a cultivation method commonly adopted in arid and semi-arid regions globally, the ridge–furrow mulchi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
2,489 Views
14 Pages

30 July 2022

The plastic-mulched ridge–furrow rainwater harvesting (RF) system has been widely adopted worldwide due to its visible economic benefits. However, few and inconclusive studies have focused on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, it is s...

  • Article
  • Open Access
321 Views
19 Pages

Integrating Infiltration Holes into Ridge–Furrow Systems Enhances Drought Resilience and Yield of Maize in Semi-Arid China

  • Jiwei Gao,
  • Ke Wang,
  • Xiaoyuan Zhang,
  • Gaoliang Li,
  • Guogang Wang,
  • Zitong Zhang and
  • Jiyong Zheng

14 December 2025

This study aimed to address the limited infiltration capacity of the double ridge–furrow mulching system (DRFM) under heavy rainfall on the Loess Plateau, which exacerbates surface runoff and mid-summer soil water deficits in semi-arid rainfed...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
5,680 Views
26 Pages

Maize Straw Strip Mulching as a Replacement for Plastic Film Mulching in Maize Production in a Semiarid Region

  • Xuemei Lan,
  • Shouxi Chai,
  • Jeffrey A. Coulter,
  • Hongbo Cheng,
  • Lei Chang,
  • Caixia Huang,
  • Rui Li,
  • Yuwei Chai,
  • Yawei Li and
  • Jiantao Ma
  • + 1 author

4 August 2020

Straw strip mulching in maize (Zea mays L.) production is showing a positive effect with the increasing negative effects coming from crop straw and plastic film residues. Therefore, it is imperative to develop comprehensive utilization of straw, and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,362 Views
23 Pages

20 June 2023

Mulching practices (M), which conserve soil water and improve water productivity (WP), are receiving increasing attention worldwide However, so far, little attention has been given to investigating the effects of the integrations of mulching and plan...

  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
3,233 Views
26 Pages

Combining Planting Patterns with Mulching Bolsters the Soil Water Content, Growth, Yield, and Water Use Efficiency of Spring Wheat under Limited Water Supply in Arid Regions

  • Salah El-Hendawy,
  • Bazel Alsamin,
  • Nabil Mohammed,
  • Nasser Al-Suhaibani,
  • Yahya Refay,
  • Majed Alotaibi,
  • ElKamil Tola and
  • Mohamed A. Mattar

29 May 2022

Innovations in water-saving cultivation strategies are urgently needed to achieve high yield and elevated water use efficiency (WUE) simultaneously in arid regions with limited water resources. Here, we conducted a two-year field study to compare the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
4,691 Views
18 Pages

Optimum Water and Fertilizer Management for Better Growth and Resource Use Efficiency of Rapeseed in Rainy and Drought Seasons

  • Jun Feng,
  • Hafiz Athar Hussain,
  • Saddam Hussain,
  • Chao Shi,
  • Linna Cholidah,
  • Shengnan Men,
  • Jianhong Ke and
  • Longchang Wang

18 January 2020

Optimum water–fertilizer management in rainfed agriculture is an important factor in improving crop productivity and the ecological environment under fluctuating climate conditions, especially in Southwest China, where seasonal drought and wate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,928 Views
21 Pages

24 November 2022

Improving water use efficiency is essential for the advancement of agricultural production, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. Two-year field experiments were conducted to study the effects of ridge–furrow (RF) and flat planting (FP) pl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,085 Views
13 Pages

5 October 2023

How to improve the utilizations of water and nutrient is a research hotspot of sloping farmland in semi-arid and rain-fed areas. In this study, the spatial changes of soil moisture, nutrients, and roots under different tillage modes, as well as the e...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,021 Views
16 Pages

Knowledge of the characteristics of N2O emissions and the influential mechanism is of great significance to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in semi-arid areas. In the present study, a three-year water-control study was conducted; three simulated ra...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,923 Views
20 Pages

1 January 2024

Water is an important factor limiting the development of arid rain-fed agriculture. Film mulching is an effective way to ensure yield in arid areas. However, whether biodegradable film can be used instead of polyethylene film for agricultural product...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
2,657 Views
17 Pages

Soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and decomposability are crucial for soil quality. Film mulching and phosphorus (P) application are important agricultural practices on the semiarid Loess Plateau. This study analyzed the combined effects of film mulc...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,130 Views
21 Pages

25 August 2023

Understanding the combined effects of sowing patterns and nitrogen (N) management strategies on crop productivity, environmental costs, and economic benefits is important to ensuring the sustainable development of dryland agriculture. Thus, we conduc...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,313 Views
14 Pages

Optimal Ridge–Furrow Ratio for Maximum Drought Resilience of Sunflower in Semi-Arid Region of China

  • Yuying Pan,
  • Xuebiao Pan,
  • Tan Zi,
  • Qi Hu,
  • Jing Wang,
  • Guolin Han,
  • Jialin Wang and
  • Zhihua Pan

26 July 2019

Ridge–furrow planting is often applied in semi-arid regions to reduce the drought risk on crop yield under rain-fed conditions. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is widely planted in northern China and how to reduce the drought risk on sunflower...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
2,923 Views
20 Pages

Simulation of Soil Water and Heat Flow under Plastic Mulching and Different Ridge Patterns

  • Ruofan Li,
  • Juanjuan Ma,
  • Xihuan Sun,
  • Xianghong Guo and
  • Lijian Zheng

4 November 2021

The ridge–furrow mulching system with plastic film (RFMS) has been widely used in semi-arid areas in order to improve soil water and heat conditions, crop yields and water use efficiency. It is of practical significance to study the effect of mulchin...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
2,662 Views
16 Pages

Optimizing Ridge–Furrow Rainwater-Harvesting Strategies for Potato Cultivation in the Drylands of Northwestern China: A Regional Approach

  • Lina Zhang,
  • Siqi Ren,
  • Feifei Pan,
  • Jianshuo Zhou,
  • Jingyan Jiang,
  • Xuebiao Pan,
  • Jing Wang,
  • Baoru Sun and
  • Qi Hu

11 August 2024

The arid and semi-arid region of Northwest China plays a significant role in potato production, yet yields are often hampered by drought due to limited precipitation and irrigation water. The ridge–furrow rainwater-harvesting technology is an e...

  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
5,925 Views
19 Pages

9 October 2018

Water scarcity threatens the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions, and ridge-furrow planting systems (RFPS) can be a prospective rainwater harvesting approach. In this study, we aimed to develop a promising water-saving strate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
29 Citations
4,628 Views
16 Pages

4 November 2021

Increasing agricultural productivity without undermining further the integrity of the Earth’s environmental systems such as soil water balance are important tasks to ensure food security for an increasing global population in rainfed agriculture. The...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,042 Views
19 Pages

12 January 2024

Ridge and furrow plastic mulch (RFPM) and nitrogen (N) application are effective strategies for improving crop productivity in China’s Loess Plain. However, it is not clear how the ridge–furrow ratio and nitrogen fertilizer type (NT) affe...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
878 Views
20 Pages

Optimizing Lucerne Productivity and Resource Efficiency in China’s Yellow River Irrigated Region: Synergistic Effects of Ridge-Film Mulching and Controlled-Release Nitrogen Fertilization

  • Minhua Yin,
  • Yuanbo Jiang,
  • Yi Ling,
  • Yanlin Ma,
  • Guangping Qi,
  • Yanxia Kang,
  • Yayu Wang,
  • Qiang Lu,
  • Yujie Shang and
  • Xiangrong Fan
  • + 5 authors

To address low productivity and water constraints in lucerne fields of China’s Gansu Yellow River Irrigation Region, this study optimized lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) cultivation through synergistic planting nitrogen regimes. A two-year field t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
4,921 Views
17 Pages

Mulching Practices Improve Soil Moisture and Enzyme Activity in Drylands, Increasing Potato Yield

  • Wenhuan Song,
  • Fanxiang Han,
  • Zhengyu Bao,
  • Yuwei Chai,
  • Linlin Wang,
  • Caixia Huang,
  • Hongbo Cheng and
  • Lei Chang

19 May 2024

Mulch is an important measure for improving agricultural productivity in many semiarid regions of the world. However, the impacts of various mulching materials on soil hydrothermal characteristics, enzyme activity, and potato yield in fields have not...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,498 Views
21 Pages

28 February 2024

Enhancing crop production in the saline regions of the Yellow River Delta (YRD), where shallow saline groundwater is prevalent, hinges on optimizing water and salt conditions in the root zone. This study explored the effects of various physical metho...

  • Article
  • Open Access
54 Citations
5,372 Views
14 Pages

Mulching-Induced Changes in Tuber Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Potato in China: A Meta-Analysis

  • Linlin Wang,
  • Jeffrey A. Coulter,
  • Jairo A. Palta,
  • Junhong Xie,
  • Zhuzhu Luo,
  • Lingling Li,
  • Peter Carberry,
  • Qiang Li and
  • Xiping Deng

22 November 2019

In dry environments, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is grown under mulching for water conservation and improving tuber yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). A meta-analysis was conducted to determine how mulching improved tuber yield and NUE in pot...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
4,926 Views
16 Pages

23 April 2020

Ridge–furrow cultivation with plastic film mulching has been widely used for many years to increase crop yields in semiarid regions. The long-term effects of plastic mulching on crop yield and soil water balance need to be seriously considered...

  • Article
  • Open Access
786 Views
21 Pages

19 September 2025

Using a maize planting system with full film mulching on double ridges and furrow sowing in the arid and semi-arid regions of the Loess Plateau, this study aims to explore the optimal proportion of organic fertilizer to replace basal chemical fertili...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
6,243 Views
17 Pages

3 November 2016

Soil hydrothermal condition is one of the most important factors affecting crop growth in arid regions. This study aimed to investigate the effect of mulching and tillage on moisture and temperature variations in soil under drip irrigation in the ari...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
2,391 Views
18 Pages

Optimal Nitrogen Rate Increases Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies of Maize under Fully Mulched Ridge–Furrow System on the Loess Plateau

  • Junhong Xie,
  • Linlin Wang,
  • Lingling Li,
  • Sumera Anwar,
  • Zhuzhu Luo,
  • Setor Kwami Fudjoe and
  • Haofeng Meng

29 October 2022

Increasing water and nitrogen use efficiencies (i.e., WUE and NUE) in dryland agroecosystems to maintain high agricultural output with lower environmental costs, such as minimal soil water depletion and nitrate-N residue, are key responsibilities to...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,286 Views
18 Pages

7 June 2023

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) are the most important noncereal crop in the world. Increasing potato production is critical for future global food security. China is the world’s largest potato producer, and potato productivity is constrained by w...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
7,662 Views
15 Pages

Impacts of Ridge-Furrow Planting on Salt Stress and Cotton Yield under Drip Irrigation

  • Chitao Sun,
  • Di Feng,
  • Zhaorong Mi,
  • Caixia Li,
  • Junpeng Zhang,
  • Yang Gao and
  • Jingsheng Sun

13 January 2017

Flat (F), mini-ditch (MD), and ridge-furrow (RF) are three conventional cotton planting patterns that are usually adopted around the world, yet soil and crop responses to these three patterns are poorly studied, as is their suitability for increasing...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,197 Views
32 Pages

19 December 2024

The ridge–furrow plastic mulching technique has been widely applied due to its benefits of increasing temperature, conserving moisture, reducing evaporation, and boosting yields. Hydrus-2D is a computer model designed to simulate the two-dimens...

  • Article
  • Open Access
693 Views
18 Pages

25 August 2025

Rational agronomic practice enhances crop productivity and resource use efficiency. Plastic film mulching and phosphorus (P) fertilization are widely applied in alpine agriculture to improve soil water content, temperature, and P availability. Howeve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
2,029 Views
12 Pages

Effects of Partial Straw Mulching on Potato Production under Different Rainfall Years in Dry-Farming Region

  • Deming Zhao,
  • Juhua Ma,
  • Xunzhen Cui,
  • Liangliang Hu,
  • Zeyi Wang,
  • Lei Chang and
  • Caixia Huang

15 November 2023

Improving resource utilization efficiency is critical for achieving high yields and long-term agricultural development in arid and semi-arid settings. Using potato as the research material, a field trial was carried out from 2020 to 2022 in dryland a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
801 Views
21 Pages

Optimizing Controlled-Release Urea and Conventional Urea Ratios Enhances Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Yield in Peanut

  • Mingxuan Gu,
  • Lu Luo,
  • Ruiyuan Fang,
  • Fengzhen Liu,
  • Zhen Tan,
  • Zheng Wu,
  • Mengjian Zheng,
  • Kun Zhang and
  • Yongshan Wan

11 September 2025

Combined application of controlled-release urea (CRU) and urea (U) improves yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in various crops, but the optimal blending ratio and related mechanisms in peanut production, particularly regarding antioxidant enzym...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
1,640 Views
18 Pages

15 January 2024

A better understanding of the factors that reduce bundle-sheath cell leakage to CO2 (Փ), enhance 13C carbon isotope discrimination, and enhance the photosynthetic capacity of barley leaves will be useful to develop a nutrient- and water-saving...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,416 Views
18 Pages

29 September 2023

In order to study the effect of a plastic membrane and geotextile cloth mulching on soil moisture and crop growth in the loess–hilly region, a one-year continuous field monitoring experiment was carried out in Ansai District, City of Yan’...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
1,633 Views
20 Pages

24 February 2024

Plastic film mulching is widely used in water and temperature-limited regions to enhance crop yields. Phosphorus (P) fertilization can address deficiencies in soil P availability. In this four-year field experiment conducted in an alpine agricultural...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,828 Views
15 Pages

Land Use Affects Soil Water Balance and Soil Desiccation within the Soil Profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau Case

  • Linlin Wang,
  • Zhuzhu Luo,
  • Lingling Li,
  • Junhong Xie,
  • Setor Kwami Fudjoe and
  • Effah Zechariah

24 July 2022

This study evaluated the properties of soil water dynamics and desiccation to a depth of 500 cm and tested the idea that land use affects soil drying in deep profiles. Four land use types were chosen: farmland, artificial forest and grassland, and ab...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,785 Views
13 Pages

Performance of Spring and Summer-Sown Maize under Different Irrigation Strategies in Pakistan

  • Abdul Ghaffar Khan,
  • Muhammad Imran,
  • Anwar-ul-Hassan Khan,
  • Ali Fares,
  • Jiří Šimůnek,
  • Tanveer Ul-Haq,
  • Abdulaziz Abdullah Alsahli,
  • Mohammed Nasser Alyemeni and
  • Shafaqat Ali

4 March 2021

Pakistan is facing severe water shortages, so using the available water efficiently is essential for maximizing crop production. This can be achieved through efficient irrigation practices. Field studies were carried out to determine the dynamics of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
225 Views
25 Pages

Ridge-Furrow Planting with Nitrogen Application Enhanced Rainfed Maize Yield and Water Productivity by Improving Leaf Photosynthetic Capacity

  • Zhenlin Lai,
  • Hao Kong,
  • Mahmood Hemat,
  • Zhenqi Liao,
  • Shengzhao Pei,
  • Han Wang,
  • Zhijun Li and
  • Junliang Fan

15 December 2025

Leaf photosynthesis plays an important role in maize growth and yield components due to its involvement in dry matter partitioning and organ formation. Nevertheless, how varying planting patterns affect maize leaf photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluoresc...

  • Review
  • Open Access
252 Citations
27,168 Views
19 Pages

11 March 2019

The rising population and reduction in the amount of land and some other resources have created tremendous pressure on current agricultural producers to meet the increasing food demands. To cope with this challenge, certain key inputs, such as fertil...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
2,377 Views
20 Pages

Effect of Operating Parameters on the Mulching Device Wear Behavior of a Ridging and Mulching Machine

  • Qinxue Zhao,
  • Fei Dai,
  • Ruijie Shi,
  • Wuyun Zhao,
  • Pengqing Xu,
  • Huan Deng and
  • Haifu Pan

To conduct an in-depth investigation of the impact of various operating parameters on mulching device wear during the operation of full-film dual-row ridging and mulching machine mulching, this paper employed EDEM software to create a 3D discrete ele...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
2,734 Views
16 Pages

Simulation Analysis and Test on the Effect of Picking Up the Residual Film of Typical Film Lifting Parts

  • Feng Wang,
  • Fei Dai,
  • Fengwei Zhang,
  • Xuefeng Song,
  • Ruijie Shi,
  • Wuyun Zhao and
  • Haijun Ma

7 February 2023

The agronomic technology of whole plastic-film mulching on double ridges has been widely promoted in the arid region of northwest China, which has caused serious residual film pollution in the field. Mechanized residual plastic-film collecting is the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,545 Views
17 Pages

26 June 2023

Supplemental irrigation under a ridge-furrow (RF) cropping system is a valuable cropping practice that balances resource efficiency and high crop yield. However, the effects of nitrogen management on crop growth, yield formation, and economic benefit...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,436 Views
19 Pages

16 October 2022

The ridge–furrow rainwater harvesting (RFRH) planting mode is widely used in arid and semi-arid areas to solve the problems of agricultural water shortage and low productivity. However, the impact of film mulching on the stability of soil carbo...

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