Box Improved Water and Soil Management for Sustainable Agriculture in the Huang-Huai-Hai River Plain (North China)
Prof. Di Xu.

Since surface water is allocated with priority given to non-agricultural water uses, irrigation in this area is predominantly based on extraction from groundwater resources. Over time intensification of irrigated agriculture has contributed to a progressive depletion of the groundwater reserves, particularly when rainfall is scarce and recharge is limited. Innovative solutions were therefore required to improve water and soil management practices that have a focus on water savings, improving the productivity of soils, and conservation of groundwater resources that would all effect increased productivity of both crops and water.

Project objectives are related to understanding issues associated with water and soil management practices, the development models and tools, such as improved knowledge on the natural resources, modeling the soil-water-plant-atmosphere continuum for better understanding the respective processes and the impacts of agricultural practices, calibration and validation of methodologies and models to evaluate crop water requirements and to establish appropriate irrigation scheduling programs and practices, development and implementation of field evaluation methods for the characterization of the existing surface irrigation systems and parameterisation of surface irrigation simulation models and its use to design appropriate practices, study and testing alternative soil management practices aiming at increasing rainfall infiltration, soil water availabity, and the soil conditions favouring plant growth and crop yields, evaluation of water management alternatives at project scale which could favour the sustainable use of groundwater resources.

The project has significantly increased wheat and corn yields through improved water use and management practices by approximately 1 t/ha resulting in increased incomes to farmers. The project had an estimated impact on 2000 ha and affected 1000 households.

To enrich the low fertile soils, farmers were taught and encouraged to prepare compost from household refuse, crop residues and domestic wastewater. With the continuous application of compost to the soils, the water holding capacity of the soils has improved. Maize yield has also increased from an average of 0.8 tons/ha to 1.5 tons/ha. All compound houses in the community now have two-three compost heaps which are regularly used. Improvements in yield of crops have served as a tangible benefit that has attracted surrounding communities to also adopt PLEC’s strategy. In 2003, the number of participating communities has increased from the initial three to twenty-four communities.
The ten key drivers described above were assessed to determine their importance with regards to the development and continuance of this bright spot. Ranking of attributes was done using a scale of 1 to 5 implying ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’ regarding the importance of each attribute. The result (Figures 1 and 2) shows that property rights, participatory approach, social capital, leadership, innovative and appropriate technology as well as low risk of failure all ranked high as being important to the development and continuance of this initiative.