No-Till Farming Systems in Rain-Fed Areas of China

In China, rain-fed (dryland) agriculture is practiced in the North China Plain as well as parts of northeast and northwest China, accounting for 51% of the total arable land. However, this region is facing an increasing rate of environmental degradation, soil erosion, and water shortage. To combat this environmental degradation, no-till (NT), as the primary principle of conservation agriculture, has been widely adopted as a sustainable agriculture practice due to its ability to control land degradation, sequester soil organic carbon (SOC), and mitigate climate change. Thus, NT offers an option to improve soil water conservation and soil quality in rain-fed areas of China. The objective of this chapter is to re-evaluate the current performances of NT farming management and describe the positives and negatives of NT for the control of soil erosion and the increase of crop production in rain-fed agricultural regions of China. Based on this review, NT can reduce wind-blown sediment, save water due to less soil disturbance, maintain a higher proportion of retention and continuous pores, enhance the infiltration rate, and decrease water evaporation, especially by mulching with crop residues. In addition, NT can eventually realize the potential to improve grain yield and the local economy. An 11-year case study conducted in Inner Mongolia showed an obvious increase by 7.4%, 17.9%, and 4.0% in SOC concentration in the NT treatment compared to subsoiling with residue retained (ST), rotary tillage with residue retained (RT), and plow tillage with residue retained (PT), respectively. In addition, the greatest biomass yield was observed for NT, which was 1.9%, 10.5%, and 9.1% higher than that under ST, RT, and PT, respectively. Although NT has the potential to solve problems that the rain-fed agricultural area faces, there are many barriers to its widespread adoption, such as the lack of standard technology and suitable equipment compared to traditional agricultural practices. In addition, various and complex crop rotations, inter-cropping systems, and crop species require corresponding strategies. These barriers constrain the rates of adaptation of NT by farmers in this rain-fed region. Therefore, developing suitable technologies are necessary to popularize NT practices among farmers in rain-fed agricultural areas of China.