Straw mulching strip-till technology and its application in corn production

No-till with straw mulching is one of the important ways to reduce wind erosion, keep soil moisture and improve soil fertility.However, its application in spring maize of Northeast China is quite limited.One reason is that the lacking of feasible technologies to deal with the straw residues.Strip-till is a key technique to return straw residues to the field in crop production in America and Europe, but it is seldom applied in China.In this review, we presented a comprehensive introduction to the machines, cultivation procedure and field management for strip-till practice.The strip-till indicated that the seedbed strip was prepared by clearing the straw residue and loosening the soil, which improved the sowing quality and ensured the full emergence of the corn seedlings.The inter-row soil was mulched with straw residue to reduce water evaporation, which increased early drought resistance.Therefore, strip-till combined the advantages of both no-till and the conventional till.Therefore, we suggested that strip-till would be potentially applied in North China where there was serious problems of wind erosion and drought stress, and further studies would be required to develop suitable machines for strip-till and the corresponding soil-crop management system for speeding up the application.