Effects of Stubble Management on Soil Fertility and Crop Yield of Rainfed Area in Western Loess Plateau, China

Table 2

Details of treatments used in the long-term conservation tillage experiment.

Code	Treatments	Description
T	Conventional tillage with stubble removed	Fields were ploughed 3 times and harrowed twice after harvesting. The first ploughing was in August immediately after harvesting, the second and third ploughing were in late August and September, respectively. The plough depths were 20 cm, 10 cm, and 5 cm, respectively. The field was harrowed after the last cultivation in September and again in October before the ground was frozen. This is the typical conventional tillage practice in the Dingxi region.
NT	No-till with stubble removed	No-till throughout the life of the experiment. The straw was removed from the field and used as fuel or feed.
TS	Conventional tillage with stubble incorporated	Fields were ploughed and harrowed exactly as for the T treatment (3 passes of plough and 2 harrows), but with straw incorporated at the first ploughing. All the straw from the previous crop was returned to the original plot immediately after threshing and then incorporated into the ground.
NTS	No-till with stubble cover	No-till throughout the life of the experiment. The ground was covered with the straw of previous crop from August until the following March. All the straw from previous crop was returned to the original plot immediately after threshing.