• Authors:
    • Li, Y.
    • Liu, L.
    • Tang, S.
  • Source: Southwest China Journal of Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 22
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Field experiment were conducted to investigate the effects of flue-cured tobacco and sweet potato intercropping on quality and economic benefits of flue-cured tobacco leaves. The results were as follow: compared with monocropping, flue-cured tobacco intercropping with sweet potato the yield of flue-cured tobacco leaves were increased 117.99 kg per hectare and increased by 4.26%, the proportion of superior and middle tobacco leaves were increased by 3.24%-14.53% and 4.54%-12.44%, respectively, meanwhile the proportion of low-grade leaves was decreased by 10.08% and 25.28%. The average price of flue-cured tobacco leaves were increased by 0.50-0.53 yuan per kilogram and the rise range was between 4.38%-4.56%. In addition, the sweet potato tube and bushrope yield were increased by 3226-7856 and 19 351-36 520 kilogram per hectare, respectively, income respectively increased by 3871-9427 and 5805-10956 yuan per hectare, the total economic income were increased 16 368-18 133 yuan per hectare and increased by 48.82%-56.40%, the different of producing value is significant at 5% level.
  • Authors:
    • Hoogmoed, W. B.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 104
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: This proceedings contains 9 papers providing information on the potential of conservation tillage in a wide-range of geographical, climatological and socioeconomical situations. Results from studies in China, Australia, Iran and Ethiopia are presented. Topics covered include: sustainable tillage methods for irrigated wheat production in different regions of Iran; conservation tillage models for small-scale farming; functional relationships between soil water infiltration and wheeling and rainfall energy; controlled traffic farming in restoring soil structure; short-term effects of tillage and manure on some soil physical properties and maize root growth in a sandy loam soil in western Iran; the impact of 14 years of conventional and no-till cultivation on the physical properties and crop yields of a loam soil at Grafton NSW, Australia; conservation tillage implements and systems for smallholder farmers in semi-arid Ethiopia; controlled traffic farming with no tillage for improved fallow water storage and crop yield on the Chinese Loess Plateau; the effect of alternative tillage and residue cover on yield and water use efficiency in annual double cropping system in North China Plain.
  • Authors:
    • Hou, S. Y.
    • Riley, I. T.
    • Chen, S. L.
  • Source: Cereal Cyst Nematodes: Status, Research and Outlook: Proceedings of the First Workshop of the Cereal Cyst Nematode Initiative, 21-23 October, 2009, CIMMYT, Ankara, Turkey
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera avenae) population densities were determined in spring cereals at harvest in two high-altitude villages in Qinghai, China in order to examine the effect of crop rotations. The two rotational systems sampled were wheat with rapeseed, broad bean and/or potato, and barley with rapeseed and/or oat. The previous season's crop, including fields where two host crops had been grown in succession, did not appear to influence the final nematode density. A high degree of variation in population density appeared to be strongly influenced by the occurrence of hyperparasites, thus masking any possible crop rotation effects. Nevertheless, a third of the fields had final egg densities greater than 10 eggs/g soil, creating a risk of yield loss if an intolerant host was to be grown in the next year. From the findings, it is suggested that future research should focus on developing locally adapted resistant cultivars and examining factors that determine the efficacy of natural biocontrol.
  • Authors:
    • Gao, L.
    • Chen, Q.
    • Liu, J.
    • Zhang, X.
    • Tian, Y.
  • Source: Scientia Horticulturae
  • Volume: 123
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The increased use of rotation, grafting, and soil sterilization has been documented to increase crop yield in intensive vegetable production systems in China. It is believed that these practices can promote changes in the rhizosphere that enhance early growth of plants. A 2-year greenhouse experiment on tomato double-cropping systems was conducted to investigate the effects of different agricultural treatments on microbial properties of rhizosphere soils and tomato fruit yield. The treatments included planting of welsh onion as a cover crop in the summer fallow (SF) period (CW), rotating vegetable chrysanthemum and tomato (CT), planting graft-tomato instead of auto-root tomato (GT), sterilizing soil with calcium cyanamide in the SF period (TC), and fallowing in the SF period (Control). Microbial population was analyzed by dilution plating. In general, microbial populations were higher in CT, CT and TC than in control. Fungal population was higher in TC whereas a high number of bacteria were found in CT. Soil microbial biomass C and N, total microbial population, organic C and total N showed significant positive correlations (P
  • Authors:
    • He, J.
    • Wang, X. Y.
    • Gao, H. W.
    • Li, H. W.
    • Yao, Z. L.
  • Source: Soil Research
  • Volume: 47
  • Issue: 8
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The furrow opening configuration used by no-till seeders can have a major effect on crop emergence in conservation tillage systems. This is particularly important in annual double-cropping regions (winter wheat and summer maize) of northern China where large volumes of residue remain on the soil surface after maize harvesting. This problem has been investigated using 3 different opening configurations for no-till wheat seeding near Beijing in 2004-05 and 2005-06, and assessing performance in terms of soil disturbance, residue cover index, soil cone index, fuel consumption, winter wheat emergence, plant growth, and subsequent yield. In this cropping system, the single-disc opening configuration significantly decreased mean soil disturbance and increased residue cover index compared with the combined strip-chop and strip-till opening configurations, but winter wheat emergence was 6-9% less, probably due to greater levels of residue cover and greater seed zone soil cone index. Winter wheat growth after seeding in combined strip-chop and strip-till seeded plots was faster than that in single-disc seeded plots and mean yield was greater. The most suitable furrow opening configuration in heavy residue cover conditions appeared to be the strip-chop one, which can provide similar crop performance with marginally better fuel economy than the strip-till opening configuration. These results should be seen as preliminary, but they are still valuable for the design and selection of no-till wheat seeders for double cropping in this region of China.
  • Authors:
    • Li, H. W.
    • He, J.
    • Zhang, X. R.
    • Li, W. Y.
  • Source: Nongye Jixie Xuebao = Transactions of the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue: 10
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: This paper put forward the new anti-blocking principle combining residue-throwing by powered-chain finger and residue-cutting by knife type opener, and designed the powered chain anti-blocking mechanism for no-till planter according to the problem of residue blocking of no-till wheat planting in heavy corn residue cover fields in annual double cropping areas of North China plain. Furthermore, the key parameters for powered-chain, chain finger and knife type opener were determined based on the analyses of the movement of anti-blocking mechanism. The field experiment showed that the powered-chain anti-blocking mechanism could solve the residue blocking effectively, so as to ensure the passing of wheat no-till planter. Through real-time clearing of corn residues before the knife type opener, 12.3% of opening force was decreased. Compared with the strip roto-tilling wheat planter, the powered-chain wheat no-till planter could not only seed and fertilize at the suitable depths, but also decrease soil disturbance and fuel consumption by 66.4% and 8.07%, respectively, which indicates that this new planter can meet the requirements of agronomy in North China plain.
  • Authors:
    • Zhu, W. W.
  • Source: Guizhou Agricultural Sciences
  • Issue: 6
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The results from analyzing the comparative superiority of main agricultural products in Hunan province by using the comparative superiority index method show that the agricultural products with obvious comparative superiority are rice, cotton, soybean, tobacco and tea, which depend on their large-scale superiority, and the agricultural products with inferior position are maize, sorghum and wheat. The market competitive power is weak because the efficiency superiority of various agricultural products is not obvious essentially. The paper puts forward the measures including maintaining the market superiority of the agricultural products with obvious comparative superiority and improving the quality of the agricultural products with significant comparative inferiority to overall promote the market competitive power of Hunan province's agricultural products.
  • Authors:
    • Kuzyakov, Y.
    • Fan, M.
    • Li, H.
    • Gong, Y.
    • Hou, R.
    • Chen, H.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 106
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The Loess Plateau in northwest China is one of the most eroded landscapes in the world, and it is urgent that alternative practices be evaluated to control soil erosion. Our objective was to determine how three different tillage practices for monoculture of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L) affected soil organic carbon (SOC) and N content after 11 years. Conventional tillage with residue removal (CT), shallow tillage with residue cover (ST), and no-tillage with residue cover (NT) were investigated. Carbon and N in various aggregate-size classes and various labile organic C fractions in the 0-15- and 15-30-cm soil layers were evaluated. The ST and NT treatments had 14.2 and 13.7% higher SOC stocks and 14.1 and 3.7% higher total N(N(t))stocks than CT in the upper 15 cm, respectively. Labile C fractions: particulate organic C (POC), permanganate oxidizable C (KMnO(4)-C), hot-water extractable C (HWC), microbial biomass C (MBC) and dissolved organic C (DOC) were all significantly higher in NT and ST than in CT in the upper 15 cm. KMnO(4)-C, POC and HWC were the most sensitive fractions to tillage changes. The portion of 0.25-2 mm aggregates, mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD) of aggregates from ST and NT treatments were larger than from CT at both 0-15- and 15-30-cm soil depths. The ST and NT treatments had significantly higher SOC and Nt in the 0.25-2 mm fraction at both depths and significantly higher N, content in the upper 15 cm. Positive significant correlations were observed between SOC, labile organic C fractions, MWD, GMD, and macroaggregate (0.25-2 mm) C within the upper 15 cm. We conclude that both variants of conservation tillage (NT and ST) increase SOC stock in the rainfed farming areas of northern China and are therefore more sustainable practices than those currently being used. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
  • Authors:
    • Zhang, X. M.
    • Li, H.
    • Li, H. W.
    • He, J.
    • Zhang, X. R.
  • Source: Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 11
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: A reciprocating powered-cutter wheat no-till planter, which has the functions of residue-cutting, sowing and bed-renovation, was designed based on the problems of residue blocking and seriously-damaged bed shape during the planting of wheat in maize stubble coverage fields under the condition of permanent raised beds (PRB) in the irrigated agricultural region of northwest China. This planter combines the vertical residue-cutting by powered cutter and horizontal residue-cutting by knife-shaped opener to solve the blocking problem. Furthermore, the columniform and cultivated-type plough was adopted to renovate the beds. Results of a field experiment showed that the planter was effective in solving residue blocking and renovating the beds. The mean sowing and fertilizing depths were 46 and 91 mm, respectively, and good uniformity was observed. In conclusion, the planter could meet the requirements of wheat no-till planting in PRB farming systems in the irrigated agricultural region of northwest China.
  • Authors:
    • Gao, H. W.
    • Liu, L. J.
    • Li, H. W.
    • Wang, Q. J.
    • He, J.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 104
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: In the annual double cropping areas of North China Plain, low crop yield and water availability are the main limiting factors to crop production. Conservation tillage has been proposed to improve water conservation and sustain soil productivity. The objectives of the study were to compare conservation tillage (CT) with conventional tillage (CV) under the current double cropping system of corn-winter wheat in the Hebei, North China Plain. The field study consisted of eight conservation tillage treatments and two conventional tillage treatments, with different surface ground cover (0%, 50% and 100%). The tillage treatments consisted of no-till, subsoiling, rototilling and plowing. The CT treatments maintained soil temperatures that were approximately 0.4degreesC greater during cold condition and about 0.5degreesC lower during warm condition at 5 and 10 cm soil depths than the CV treatments, respectively. The greatest differences were achieved by the double no-till system with 100% residue cover treatment in terms of soil temperature and crop growth. Winter wheat yield and water use efficiency (WUE) were improved by 6.7% and 30.1% with CT compared to the CV treatments, and for corn, 8.9% and 6.8%, respectively. We conclude that conservation tillage for the annual double cropping system is feasible, and the double no-till with 100% residue cover is the most effective way of improving crop yields and WUE on the North China Plain.