Abstract: The objective of this experiment was to study the effects of different plastic film mulching cultivation models on maize yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and quality, in order to provide reference data for cultivation of dryland maize with good quality and high-yield. Four planting systems were tested in this study: a control with no plastic film mulching (NM), and three configurations of plastic film mulching; narrow plastic film mulching (NF), wide plastic film mulching (WF), and full plastic film mulching on double ridges with planting in catchment furrows (FFDRF). These various systems have been developed in the northwest dryland region from the 1970s to the present. The four planting systems were compared for soil moisture in the 0-2 m depth before sowing and harvest, dry matter accumulation, grain yield, water use efficiency and crop quality index. It was found that for the NF, WF and FFDRF treatments, respectively, average dry matter accumulation increased by 5.5%, 11.2% and 21.9% compared with NM; yield increased by 12.1%, 18.6% and 31.3% compared with NM; WUE increased by 17.0%, 24.1% and 36.0% compared with NM; test weight increased by 2.7%, 1.9% and 1.8% compared with NM and protein content decreased by 0.17, 0.14 and 0.22 percent, compared with NM. The effects of different cultivation systems on content of the fat and starch were not significant. The data show that with the evolution of cultivation practice in the use of plastic film for dryland maize cropping, the moisture conservation for crop use and crop yield have increased with successive methodology developments, but the protein content of grain has decreased.

Key words: dryland plastic film maize, cultivation models, grain yield, water use efficiency, quality