Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agricultural Water Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat Response of growth, yield and water use efficiency of winter wheat to different irrigation methods and scheduling in North China Plain Shiva Kumar Jha a,b , Tefo Steve Ramatshaba a , Guangshuai Wang a , Yueping Liang a , Hao Liu a , Yang Gao a, ⁎ , Aiwang Duan a, ⁎ a Key Laboratory of Crop Water Use and Regulation, Ministry of Agriculture/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang, Henan, 453002, PR China b Nepal Agricultural Research Council, National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Surface drip irrigation Sprinkler irrigation Flood irrigation Plant growth Grain yield Water use efficiency ABSTRACT The knowledge of suitable irrigation methods coupled with effective irrigation scheduling to improve agri- cultural water use efficiency has become increasingly necessary for farmers in the North China Plain to ame- liorate the severe water shortage that has threatened winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L) production. A two- season field experiment was conducted in a winter wheat field amide to compare the efficiency of three irri- gation methods sprinkler irrigation (SI), surface drip irrigation (SDI) and flood irrigation (FI) under three irri- gation schedules by irrigating while soil moisture decreased to 70%, 60% and 50% of the field capacity re- spectively. It was found that irrigation methods with suitable irrigation scheduling indeed have the potential to balance the optimal yield and water use efficiency. The results showed that irrigating 180.3 mm and 175.2 mm of water in the two studied seasons respectively was optimal to achieve the highest grain yield. For SDI and SI, this could be achieved by irrigating six times each with 30 mm of water, while for FI irrigating three times each with 60 mm of water gave comparable results. Our studies suggested that irrigating while soil moisture reduced to 60% of the field capacity by SDI was the best in all aspects compared with other irrigation methods and irrigation schedules. 1. Introduction The North China Plain (NCP) is the most important agricultural region in China, but severe water shortage in it has threatened both rural income growth and food security (Li, 2005; Wang, 2017). The drought index projected by Song and Zhao (2012) showed that the drought is likely to deteriorate in the coming 10–30 years. The ex- tensive use of groundwater for irrigation has resulted in groundwater table dropping continuously over the past four decades, compromising both hydrological balance and sustainable agricultural production (Kendy et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2008a). The study of Li et al. (2005) showed that more than 70% of agricultural water was used for irri- gating winter wheat. Developing feasible irrigation method and effi- cient irrigation scheduling to improve irrigation water use efficiency is essential to secure physiological development of crop and their ultimate yields (Du et al., 2015). Winter wheat is one of the two most important staple crops in NCP, consuming most of irrigation water which is affected strongly by weather, especially the amount and distribution of rainfall during wheat growth season. For example, Xinxiang city, located in the northern Henan province and being a top producer of winter wheat in the NCP (NBSC, 2015), has a continental semi-humid climate with average annual temperature of 14.6 ℃ and uneven seasonal precipita- tion with an annual average (1951–2014) of 582 mm. Studies by Li et al. (2005) and Zhang et al. (2003) found that 70% of total rainfall occurs from July to September; and the average rainfall during winter wheat growth season from middle October to early June over the last 60 years was only 161 mm, far less than the evapotranspiration demand of the wheat estimated to be about 450 mm (Liu et al., 2002). To safe- guard grain yield, supplemental irrigation is thus required (Zhang et al., 2003, 2002). Farmers in Xinxiang usually irrigate winter wheat three to five times with an irrigation amount of 180–300 mm to meet its water require- ment of 450–500 mm (Zhang et al., 2002). However, frequent irrigation could facilitate soil evaporation (Lv et al., 2013) and excessive drainage from root zone (Chen et al., 2014). Wang et al. (2012) found that drip https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.03.011 Received 19 March 2018; Received in revised form 4 March 2019; Accepted 5 March 2019 ⁎ Corresponding authors at: Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 380 Hongli Road, Xinxiang, Henan, 453002, PR China. E-mail addresses: gylcx0944@163.com (Y. Gao), duanaiwang@aliyun.com (A. Duan). Agricultural Water Management 217 (2019) 292–302 0378-3774/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. T