The Loess Plateau is a key focus area in the Yellow River basin for implementing environmental protection and high-quality development strategies. Agricultural production on the Loess Plateau depends highly on a healthy natural environment. As the medium for crop growth, soils and water are vital for achieving desirable crop and water productivity. The development of soil and water conservation and the natural environment on the Loess Plateau are therefore matters of concern both locally and for the international community. Developments on the Loess Plateau have revealed that numerous factors can affect crop and water productivity, including climate, crop species and cultivar, field management, and soil properties. At the field scale, optimized management made full use of the limited water resources, and maximized the use of light and heat through breeding and deploying improved cultivars, regulating planting density and sowing time, following rational fertilizer regimes, increasing soil temperature, reducing the evaporation of soil moisture (e.g., by mulching with plastic film), and other measures. These technologies are particularly significant to promote soil and water conservation and productivity, and will also help to improve prospects for the high-quality development of the Loess Plateau in the future. These measures can also provide major support to protect the ecological communities of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, grasslands and farmlands of the Loess Plateau.
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