THE COMPREHENSIVE AND INTERACTION EFFECT OF EIGHT CULTIVATION METHODS ON WATER CONSUMPTION, WATER USE EFFICIENCY, AND MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.) YIELDS IN THE ARID REGION OF NORTHERN CHINA

摘要

Water resource crises have become the main factor limiting agricultural development in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern China. Accordingly, water saving agriculture has been a focus of researchers to improve the comprehensive use efficiency of limited water resources. The present study used the Uniform Design and examined the comprehensive and interaction effect of eight cultivation methods, including irrigation amount (IA), growth stages of irrigation (GI), sowing date (SD), planting density (PD), base nitrogen (BN), base phosphorus (BPS), base potassium (BPM), and nitrogen topdressing (NT) on water consumption (WC), water use efficiency (WUE), and maize (Zea mays L.) yields. Three key results were observed. (1) WC showed an significant positive correlation with IA, and the interaction effect of IA and GI on WC was significant and had the strongest effect. (2) WUE showed a significant positive correlation with PD, and the interaction effect of BPS and GI on WUE was significant. (3) An optimizing statistical model was used to maximize yield based on cultivation methods as a reference for agricultural practices. Overall, this research indicated that efforts to optimize cultivation methods to increase yield should first focus on optimizing IA and GI, with optimized irrigation management occurring secondarily. The present findings provide the foundation for improving both comprehensive water resource use efficiency and maize production.