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No-tillage enhances soil water storage, grain yield and water use efficiency in dryland wheat and maize cropping systems: A global meta-analysis

Muhammad Adil , Mansoor Maitah, Siqi Lu, Safdar Bashir, Cheng Zhang, Zijiye Yao, Isma Gul, Sehar Razzaq, Heli Lu

Abstract

Climate change is significantly affecting crop production and is a threat to global food security. Conventional tillage (CT) is the primary tillage practice in rain-fed areas. However, conservation tillage methods are applied to conserve soil moisture to increase crop productivity. Wheat and maize are globally important crops. Previous research has described the effects of different tillage methods on overall cropping systems. There was a need for a comparative assessment of the impacts of different tillage methods on soil water storage, crop yield, and crop water use between these two important cropping systems. Moreover, the effects of different tillage methods under varying soil textures, precipitation, and temperature patterns are still unknown in these cropping systems. We took data from 119 peer-reviewed published articles and analyzed using meta-analysis to assess the effects of 3 conservation tillage practices, including no-tillage (NT), reduced tillage (RT), and subsoil tillage (ST), on precipitation storage efficiency (PSE), soil water storage at crop planting (SWSp), grain yield, evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) under varying precipitation and temperature patterns and soil textures in dryland wheat and maize cropping systems. We took CT as a control treatment and compared it with different conservation tillage systems. The results indicated that compared to conventional tillage (CT), overall conservation tillage methods increased PSE, SWSp, grain yield, ET, and WUE by 22.6%, 17.8%, 24.1%, 6.5%, and 12.1%, respectively, in winter wheat-fallow cropping system. Fine-textured soils conserved more precipitation water which improved ET, compared to medium and coarse-textured soils. The conservation tillage methods increased PSE and grain yield in regions with mean annual precipitation (MAP) of >600 mm, while crop yield, ET, and WUE were greater when MAP was <400 mm. The regions with low mean annual temperature (MAT) (<8℃) increased SWSp, while moderate MAT (8-15℃) increased PSE, grain yield, and WUE. Overall conservation tillage methods increased PSE, SWSp, grain yield, ET, and WUE of spring maize by 38.1%, 20.6%, 29.6%, 16.9%, and 11.0%, respectively, compared to CT. The PSE, SWSp, ET, and WUE were improved under medium-textured soils, while grain yield was improved under coarse-textured soils. The moderate MAP (400-600 mm) SWSp, while MAP <400 mm improved PSE, grain yield, ET, and WUE. The PSE, SWSp, and ET were improved when MAT was <8℃, while grain yield and WUE were improved when MAT was >15 ℃. Conservation tillage increased soil water conservation and yield under high MAP and moderate MAT in winter wheat. However, soil water conservation and yields were more under MAP of <400 mm and moderate MAT. We conclude that conservation tillage could be a promising practice to increase precipitation storage, soil water conservation, and crop yield in the regions with medium to low MAP and medium to high MAT.

FP23267  Accepted 25 March 2024

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