Agron. Sustain. Dev. (2015) 35:815–825 DOI 10.1007/s13593-015-0286-1

Wen Yin & Aizhong Yu & Qiang Chai & Falong Hu & Fuxue Feng & Yantai Gan

W. Yin :A. Yu:Q. Chai:F. Hu:F. Feng Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Lanzhou 730070, China

W. Yin :A. Yu:Q. Chai (*):F. Hu College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China e-mail: Chaiq@gsau.edu.cn

Y. Gan(*) Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Swift Current, SK S9H 3X2, Canada e-mail: gan@agr.gc.ca

Accepted: 14 January 2015/Published online: 4 February 2015 # INRA and Springer-Verlag France 2015

Abstract Family farms in populated countries must produce sufficient quantities of food to meet the ever-growing population needs. It is unknown whether innovated farming systems canalleviatethisissue.Here,wecarried out field experiments in arid northwest China from 2009 to 2012 to determine the response of water use, grain yield, and water use efficiency. Weintegratedcropintensificationviarelay-plantingandstraw mulching in the same system. Straw mulching included stubblestanding,strawcovering,orstrawincorporationtothesoil. Results show that wheat and maize relay-planting with straw mulching increased yields by up to 153 % versus monoplanting of maize and wheat. Straw covering approached the highest yield. Relay-planting with stubble standing or straw covering decreased water consumption by 4.6 %. The integrated systems increased water use efficiency by up to 46 % compared to conventional mono-planting maize and wheat.