New potato drought-resistant and yield-increasing technology successfully developed by Gansu Agricultural University
On the 3rd, reporters learned from Gansu Agricultural University that a new dryland straw strip mulching potato cultivation technology, led by Professor Chai Shouxi of the university, has raised fresh potato yield per mu to 1927.1 kg, an increase of 868.1 kg and 483.9 kg per mu respectively compared with uncovered open-field cultivation and black plastic film mulching fresh potato cultivation, with yield increase rates of 82.0% and 33.5%.
Recently, a joint yield measurement team composed of experts from Lanzhou University, the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and agricultural technology extension departments at the Gansu provincial and county levels conducted on-site actual yield measurements of the new dryland straw strip mulching potato cultivation technology. The yield measurement demonstration field is located in Dianzi Village, Pingxiang Town, Tongwei County, Gansu; the control fields were black plastic film mulching and uncovered open-field cultivation.
Wang Yihang, head of the yield measurement team and a researcher at the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that this technology has significant effects in preserving soil moisture, lowering temperature, and increasing yield, and that the yield-increasing effect is even more obvious in a year of severe drought. "Over the past three years, through 10 actual yield measurements of this technology by experts and extensive demonstration planting by agricultural technology extension departments in many places, it has been proved that this technology can greatly increase yield compared with uncovered cultivation, has a stable drought-resistant and yield-increasing effect, and yields are similar to or even higher than plastic film mulching cultivation."
The yield measurement team also believes that this technology can effectively reduce plastic film pollution of the land, and at the same time, after straw mulching, rotary tillage and crushing for return to the field is conducive to building soil fertility and combining planting with raising.
Chai Shouxi said that during the planting process, through the new model of "in-situ mulching with corn straw in double ridges and furrows," when the previous crop of full-film double-ridge-furrow corn is harvested, the whole corn stalks are inserted in place between two rows of high stubble on the small ridge to form strip mulching, and then potatoes are planted on the large ridge. Throughout the whole process, there is no need to transport straw from other places, which not only makes material collection convenient and saves labor, with outstanding drought-resistant and yield-increasing effects, but also establishes a reasonable crop rotation technology system of "plastic film mulching for planting corn, corn straw mulching for planting potatoes," which can greatly reduce dependence on plastic film.
During this year's potato growth period, Gansu encountered a severe drought rarely seen in many years, causing a major potato yield reduction and a shortage of market supply. "This technology is very suitable for promotion and application in dry farming areas with annual precipitation of 250 mm to 550 mm, and has broad prospects. If it can receive strong support from the government and agricultural technology extension departments, I believe it will greatly increase dryland potato yields in the future," Chai Shouxi told reporters. Reporter Zhang Wenjing