Abstract: For the purpose of developing new methods to attenuate the impact of drought stress on the spring-planting potato in Southwest China, this study analyzed the effect of tillage strategies on the potato field topsoil water content, the growth dynamic and the tuber yield. We also analyzed and predicted the potential yield and the water use efficiency under different tillage treatments with the FLINT1 potato growth model. The results demonstrated that before the full coverage, compared to the conventional tillage technique treatment (CK), the topsoil (0-20 cm) water content in the field treated with green manure + plastic mulching mode (GMPM), green manure (GM) and simply plastic mulching model (PM) increased 12.93%, 6.30% and 10.88%,respectively. While after the full coverage, topsoil water content of the filed treated with GMPM and PM were lower than that of CK at 6.35% and 6.40%. The results of FLINT1 model analysis indicated that the GMPM and PM strategies might induce water stress during the later tuber development stage. However, the tuber yield from GMPM field was 25.6% higher while the yield from PM field was 15.8% lower than that from CK. Therefore, the conclusion is that the GMPM strategy could significantly increased the topsoil water content during early seedling stage and the final tuber yield, therefore, it is a suitable tillage strategy for the production of spring-planting potato in Southwest China; While the plastic model might be applied at early seedling stage and removed during tuber development stage to maintain the high topsoil water content and the yield.