Study on the applications of mulched drip irrigation and furrow irrigation to large area of cotton fields

Field experiments on the popularization of mulched drip irrigation and furrow irrigation to cotton cultivation were conducted at the Shihezi Experimental Station of Soil Amelioration of Xingjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from Apr. to Sep., 1998. The result shows that the cotton yield and WUE under mulched drip irrigation are 18.9% and 143.7% higher than those under furrow irrigation. Economic benefit analysis also shows that mulched drip irrigation for cotton cultivation can save (8?155?Yuan/hm~2) as compared with furrow irrigation. Besides, mulched drip irrigation can also generate certain social and ecological benefits.