Influence of plastic film mulch on maize water use efficiency in the Loess Plateau of China

Water is the main limiting factor for crop growth in dryland farming areas. Plastic film mulch (PM) is widely used to improve water use efficiency (WUE) and increase crop yield over conventional methods (no mulch, NM) in China. To get a better understanding about PM influence on water use process in the field, we defined WUETWI as the ratio of yield (Y) to the total water input (TWI), and divided WUETWI into 4 steps by means of a systematic and...