Abstract: Based on the tillage practices of summer maize and the rainfall pattern in Northwest China, and by using self-made simulated rainfall device, a field experiment was conducted on the effects of plowing, no-tillage, and no-tillage plus mulching on the water use efficiency (WUE) and yield of summer maize under rainfalls 250, 350 and 450 mm from June to September, 2010.  Compared with plowing, no-tillage increased the WUE and yield under rainfall 250 mm by 26% and 16.5% and under rainfall 350 mm by 17.6% and 6.1%, respectively. Under rainfall 450 mm, the water storage was smaller in treatment no-tillage than in treatment plowing, and the WUE and yield in treatment no-tillage were 1.1% and 0.6% lower than those in treatment plowing, respectively. No-tillage plus mulching overcame the disadvantage of no-tillage in lesser water-storing under sufficient rainfall than plowing. Under the three rainfalls, no-tillage plus mulching could effectively inhibit the soil evaporation between plants, decrease the invalid water consumption of bare soil, and increase the soil water storage and the rate of evapotranspiration to water consumption.  Compared with plowing, no-tillage plus mulching increased the WUE and yield under rainfall 250 mm by 48.6% and 32.9%, under rainfall 350 mm by 51.6% and 27.1%, and under 450 mm rainfall by 23.7% and 13.1%, respectively. In sum, relative to plowing, notillage showed its superiority in increasing WUE and yield under rainfalls 250  and 350 mm, whereas no-tillage plus mulching increased the WUE and yield significantly under rainfalls 250 and 450 mm.

Key words: simulated rainfall, conservation tillage, summer maize, water use efficiency, yield.