Soil tilling, mulching key to China’s potato crop

When you think of China, do you think of potatoes? Maybe not, but in the Loess Plateau region of northwestern China, potato is the main food crop. 

Even though it is such an important crop there, potato yields are lower than they could be. The area has a dry climate with uneven precipitation. Droughts are common, especially in the spring when crops are just starting to emerge. If soil moisture was more reliable, the potato crops would do better.Rong Li and colleagues at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, China set out to discover if different tilling and mulching practices could improve soil moisture—and crop yields—in the Loess Plateau. The researchers studied three tillage options (conventional, no-till, and subsoiling) combined with three mulching options (no mulch, straw mulch, and plastic film).

read more:https://www.agronomy.org/science-news/soil-tilling-mulching-key-china-potato-crop

Posted by admin on Dec 3 2018. Filed under News at Now, News From Roots, Organic agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry