The ground-cover rice production system (GCRPS): a successful new approach to save water and increase nitrogen fertilizer efficiency?

To evaluate a new production technique for rice, the so-called ground-cover rice production system (GCRPS), three field experiments were started in 2001 at three locations (Beijing, Nanjing, and Guangzhou) representing a wide range of environmental and agricultural conditions. Within these experiments, water balance (precipitation/irrigation, surface runoff, leaching, evaporation and evapotranspiration), nitrogen balance (plant uptake, leaching,...