Effects of Different Tillage Techniques on Yield and Water Use Efficiency in Broomcorn Millet

Furthermore, deep scarification could result in higher yield and water use efficiency of cereals than conventional tillage'51, and water consumption and water use efficiency in growth period of crops are key indexes determining water utilization'61. [...]the exploration of rational tillage methods is beneficial to sustainable development of farmland. Results and Analysis Effect of different tillage methods on dry matter accumulation of broomcorn millet It could be seen from Fig. 1 that the amounts of dry matter accumulation in different tillage treatments showed an gradually increasing trend with growth period, and the amount of dry matter accumulation was the highest in deep tillage treatment, followed by rotary tillage, no tillage and conventional tillage sequentially. Conclusions and Discussion It was reported that tillage methods significantly affect water use efficiency, deep tillage could effectively improve soil physical structure, effectively reduce soil compactness and break plow pan, thereby achieving the effects of improving soil permeability, promoting penetration of rainwater, and improving soil water storage, and furthermore, performance in improvement of grain yield, water use efficiency and economic benefit as well as in water saving and cost reduction is also good[5,7-16]. Compared with conventional tillage, deep tillage, rotary tillage and no tillage could remarkably improve soil water content and soil water storage, and among them, deep tillage exhibited the highest water use efficiency, and is most beneficial to utilization of soil water, promotion of growth and improvement of yield for broomcorn millet in production.