Abstract:

Alfalfa, as the forage with high protein content, is known as the ‘king of forage’. Xinjiang is one of the five major pastoral areas in China, but its construction of artificial forage land lags behind. For a long time, the problems of poor irrigation management level, low utilization efficiency of water and fertilizer, and high input and low output are common in forage production, which have become the bottleneck to restrict the development of modern animal husbandry in Xinjiang. In recent years, based on the large-sized moving sprinkler irrigation machines, leading enterprises in agricultural and animal husbandry in Xinjiang have developed water-saving forage industry vigorously. Consequently, the production technology of alfalfa with sprinkler irrigation to save water and get high yield and quality is urgently needed. This study combined the water and fertilizer integration technology with the practice of sprinkler irrigation in alfalfa production, expounded the application technical points of the integration technology from the aspects of variety selection, physical and chemical properties of soil, land leveling, system management, planting pattern, population index, and water and fertilizer management and supporting cultivation measures in each growth period of alfalfa, and proposed a general guiding technical specification for the water and fertilizer integration. This technical specification reflects the advantages of water and fertilizer integration technology, and can provide technical guidance for alfalfa production with sprinkler irrigation and reference for agricultural technology extension personnel, agricultural technology extension service and scientific researchers in agricultural field in northern Xinjiang.

Key words: alfalfa, sprinkler irrigation, water and fertilizer integration, technical points