Abstract: 【Objective】It has important scientific values that the yield increase mechanism of micro-catchment cultivation is further understand through studying border effect and physiological characteristic of foxtail millet among different micro-catchment stripshapes in semiarid region of south Ningxia.【Method】Photosynthetic characteristic and chlorophyll contents and yield among different stripshapes were measured in side row and middle row, respectively.【Result】 Photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatic conductance and chlorophyll contents of side row were higher than those of middle row among different stripshapes. When the furrow: ridge ratio was fixed, the wider the width of the furrow and ridge was, the stronger the border advantage, the bigger the border effect index of yield and border effect of foxtail millet among different stripshapes. In the meantime, the highest yield increase of side rows went up to 196.5%, on the contrary, the highest yield increase of middle rows went down to 12.4%. The optimal width of ridge and furrow seemed to be 45 cm in the less than 250 mm rainfall area of Ningxia, the 45 cm﹕45 cm ridge and furrow system led to a yield increase of 5 028 kg·ha-1(132%) in 2004 and of 2 075.6 kg·ha-1(178.9%) in 2005 compared with the controls. Contribution ratio of yield increase of side row and middle row in an experiment were: treatment 1 (30﹕30) 100% (without middle row), treatment 2 (45﹕45) 79.67% and 20.33%, treatment 3 (60﹕60) 71.43% and 28.57%, treatment 4 (75﹕75) 69.38% and 30.62%, respectively.【Conclusion】The photosynthetic characteristic of side row and middle row was different, when the furrow: ridge ratio was fixed, the wider the width of furrow and ridge was, the bigger the border effect of foxtail millet among different stripshapes.

Key words: Water micro-catchment, Border effect, Photosynthetic rate, Drought resistance