Abstract:

The semi-arid Loess Plateau is a central zone of Chinese rainfed farming. Drought and soil erosion are the two major obstacles to economic development in the semi-arid Loess Plateau. The conservation agriculture and runoff agriculture has been developed for several decades here. However, its regulative role in rain water was very limited, and the problems of agriculture production are still going on, such as severe seasonal drought and water shortage, low agriculture productivity, fragile ecological environment, low yield-invest ratio. Supplemental irrigation of collected rain water is an important form of rainfall regulation and utilization on the basis of sophisticated technologies and theories of conservation agriculture and runoff agriculture, which not only come to fulfillment rainfall collecting in spatial location like the conservation agriculture and runoff agriculture measure, but also come to true rainfall collecting in time distribution by principle of superposition. Agricultural productivity will be highly increased by using rain water collecting for supplemental irrigation. It not only brings about the integration of ecological reconstruction with economic development, but also provides a new approach to the sustainable development of agriculture and removing two biggest stumbling blocks, drought and soil erosion. It is suggested that this technology will become a strategic measure and comprehensive development model in semi-arid Loess Plateau of China.

Key words: the semi-arid Loess Plateau')">the semi-arid Loess Plateau, rainwater harvesting for supplemental irrigation, eco-agriculture