The irrigation system for spring maize production in the eastern Loess Plateau is unclear. In view of this, the effects of straw return and post-silking irrigation on grain yield and use efficiency of water and nitrogen of spring maize were studied in order to explore effective management measures to achieve sustainable and efficient utilization of water and nitrogen in spring maize in the region, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the high yield, high resource efficiency, and environmentally friendly agricultural sustainable development of spring maize in the region.

Based on a 7-year long-term positioning experiment (2014-2020), a field experiment was carried out from 2021 to 2022. A split design was applied for the treatments, the main factors included straw returning (R) and no straw returning (U), and sub-factors included five post-silking irrigation gradients (I0, I50, I100, I150, and I200 mm). The correlation between dry matter accumulation at post-silking and evapotranspiration of spring maize was analyzed, and the effects of different treatments on grain yield, economic benefits and use efficiency of water and nitrogen were studied.

The grain yield, economic benefit and use efficiency of water and nitrogen of spring maize were significantly improved by straw returning and irrigating at post-silking. Compared with conventional tillage, the grain yield, the economic benefit and the water use efficiency of straw returning treatment increased by 15.1%-43.5%, 15.9%-49.1%, and 16.8%-36.9%, respectively. The N recovery use efficiency, N agricultural efficiency, and N partial productivity of spring maize were significantly improved by 15.8%-62.0%, 26.5%-126.0%, and 15.1%-43.6%, respectively. The relationship between dry matter accumulation and evapotranspiration at post-silking was a quadratic function. Compared with conventional tillage, the straw returning treatment showed a stronger water productivity at post-silking. Though the yield response factor, the straw returning treatment had stronger water buffering capacity under water stress. Under the condition of straw returning, the grain yield and water and nitrogen use efficiency of the treatment with irrigation rate at post-silking were the highest under I150 treatment. In addition, the straw returning and irrigating at post-silking significantly promoted root growth of spring maize, but excessive irrigating (I200 treatment) inhibited root growth.

To sum up, in the spring maize production system in the eastern valley plain of the Loess Plateau, straw returning with the irrigating rate of 150 mm at post-silking could be used as a management measure for the efficient and sustainable use of water and nitrogen of spring maize.