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In arid north‐western China, soil degradation, limited water and subsequent yield decline, largely as a result of excessive tillage and residue removal practices, are the main factors limiting further development of local agriculture. The effects of permanent raised beds (PRB), no‐till (NT) and traditional tillage (TT) on soil structure and yield were investigated in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) – maize (Zea mays L.) cropping system from 2004 to 2009 in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province, China. PRB and NT had more macro‐aggregates (>0.25 mm, +2.7%), a better distribution of pore size classes and improved hydraulic conductivity, whereas TT soils were dominated by micro‐aggregates and micro‐porosity. In PRB, soil bulk density decreased significantly by 6.3 and 7.0% for the 0‐ to 10‐cm and 20‐ to 30‐cm depths relative to TT. The PRB mean crop yields increased by 4.2% and water use efficiency improved by 21.3% compared with TT because of greater soil moisture and improved soil physical and chemical status. These improvements in soil properties, yield and water use are of considerable importance for soil regeneration, food security and sustainable agriculture in arid regions, such as north‐western China.

A controlled traffic no-till system is a cropping system that has a significant potential to improve soil health, sustainability and crop yield. A pilot experiment was conducted to compare soil chemical properties and crop yields between controlled traffic no-till and random traffic in an annual double-cropping area of the North China Plain from 2005 to 2010. The experiment was performed using three treatments: (1) controlled traffic no-till (NTCT); (2) random traffic no-till (NTRT); and (3) conventional tillage (CT). The NTCT treatment significantly improved soil organic matter and total N compared with both NTRT and CT treatments and remarkably increased available P compared with CT treatment in the surface soil layer (0–10cm), but no significant differences were found in soil pH compared with both NTRT and CT treatments. However, in the 10–20- and 20–30-cm soil profiles, soil organic matter, total N and available P were reduced after NTCT treatment when compared with those obtained after CT treatment. At 0–10cm soil depths, soil bulk density under NTCT and NTRT was higher than in CT, whereas the opposite was true at soil depths of 10–30cm. Overall, it was found that the 6-year mean maize yield of NTCT and NTRT treatments was 10.9% and 1.1% higher respectively than the CT treatment, whereas the winter wheat yield was 1.1% and 3.0% higher respectively compared with the CT treatment. NTCT appears to be an improvement over current farming systems in an annual double-cropping area of the North China Plain.

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. lower soil temperatures than the bare soil. Beijing is located in the northern part of China, with an annual mean temperature of 11.0 to 12.0°C, and growing degree days are limited during the year. Increasing the soil temperature of the seedbed is benefi cial for the winter plants the region of Beijing, where a wheat-maize annual double-cropping system is practiced. Raised beds have the eff ect of restoring the soil temperature. To make use of the advantages of no-till and raised beds, adoption of permanent raised beds is essential (Hari Ram et al., 2011).Combining no-till, permanent bed planting, and furrow irrigation with controlled traffi c, the PRB system has proven itself to be an eff ective method to improve soil properties. Th e developments of PRB technology in diff erent areas are summarized below.In arid and semiarid areas, Verhulst et al. (2011) evaluated the eff ects of tillage and residue management in an arid, irrigated bed planting system with a wheat-maize rotation in an annual double-cropping system and stated that PRB seemed to be the most sustainable option. Devkota et al. (2013) compared permanent beds and residue retention with conventional tillage combined with diff erent levels of residue cover and N fertilization in irrigated arid lands under a cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)-wheatmaize rotation system and found that the former can increase water productivity in wheat by 27% and in maize by 84% while increasing yields of wheat by 12% and maize by 42%. A PRB system also signifi cantly increased soil water content, soil temperature, water use effi ciency, soil structure, and spring wheat yield in arid northwestern China under a spring wheat-maize rotation system compared with TT and no-till . In another study, the PRB planting system reduced operational costs up to 40% and enhanced physical and biological soil quality parameters (compared with traditional ridge beds) in the coarse, sandy clay soils ABSTRACT As a typical semi-humid area with a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-maize (Zea mays L.) annual double-cropping system, Beijing has the lowest food production per capita and is su ering from severe soil degradation and low seedbed temperature in winter. is study evaluated the permanent raised bed (PRB) system in Beijing from 2005 to 2011 to investigate the e ects of combining no tillage, residue cover, and controlled tra c with raised beds for improving soil properties. We found that the overall soil bulk density (0-30 cm) in PRB plots was signi cantly (P < 0.05) lower (by 12.4%) than that in traditional tillage (TT) plots, while the penetration resistance in the 10-to 20-and 20-to 30-cm soil layers of PRB plots was 18.2 and 26.1% lower (P < 0.05), respectively, than that of TT. e percentage of water-stable soil macroaggregates (>0.25 mm) in the PRB plots was 89.8% (P < 0.05) higher than in the TT plots, while the soil temperature was approximatel...

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An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of tillage on soil properties in the field of maize (Zea mays L.) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) annual double cropping region in North China Plain. Measurements were made following six years (2005 to 2010) of three tillage treatments; no till with controlled traffic (NTCT), no till random trafficking (NTRT) and conventional tillage (CT) on a silt loam according to the USDA texture classification system soil in Daxing district, which lies in the suburb of Beijing. Long term no till with controlled traffic significantly (P < 0.05) increased macroaggregates, infiltration rate, soil moisture, together with reductions in soil bulk density, soil compaction in different layers compared with the no till random traffic and traditional mould board tillage treatment currently used in this region. Consequently, mean winter wheat and summer maize yields for the NTCT treatment were improved by 2.8 and 7.1% when compared with the soils under no till random traffic, while huge improvement was found when it was compared with conventional ploughing management (4.2 and 12.08% for wheat and maize, respectively). The long-term experiment demonstrated that notillage controlled traffic with residues retained, offers a potentially significant improvement over the current farming systems in annual double cropping areas of North China Plain.