Sustainable agricultural production is mainly attributed to healthy soils. Calcareous soils, especially in arid and semiarid areas, suffer from low organic matter and nutrient availability. Low organic matter could degrade soil with reducing the crop productivity. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the integrated effect of soil mulch and irrigation on soil activity, nutrient availability, and potentiality of corn yield under calcareous soil conditions. In a calcareous soil, two mulching soil treatments (mulch and non-mulch) as well as three irrigation regimes, applied as ratio of crop evapotranspiration (60, 80, and 100%, denoted I60, I80, and I100, respectively), were arranged in a strip plot design based on completely randomized block arrangement using 3 replicates. Mulching soil plus irrigation by I80 achieved the maximum increases in organic carbon, organic matter, and soil activity. Higher values of NH₄⁺–N form were detected with non-mulch and irrigation by I100 or I60. Lower Zn content was obtained in soil due to mulch or non-mulch plus irrigation I100. With lowering irrigation level by 20% (I80) and by application of mulch, the increases in weight of ear, weight of 100 kernels, and kernel yield of corn amounted to 5.4, 4.6, and 16.1%, respectively. Results from the present study conclude that adoption of soil mulching in corn production system plus moderate irrigation (80% of crop evapotranspiration) is considered a promising management practice for amending calcareous soils, saving irrigation water, and sustaining/boosting soil productivity in arid zones.

可持续农业生产主要归功于健康的土壤。石灰质土壤，特别是在干旱和半干旱地区，有机物含量和养分利用率较低。有机质含量低会使土壤退化，从而降低农作物的生产力。因此，本研究旨在评估石灰性土壤条件下土壤覆盖和灌溉对土壤活性，养分利用率和玉米单产潜力的综合影响。在钙质土壤中，采用两种覆盖土壤处理（覆盖和非覆盖）以及三种灌溉制度，分别作为作物蒸散量的比例（分别为60％，80％和100％，分别表示为I60，I80和I100）。基于完全随机的块排列（使用3个重复）以带状图设计排列。I80覆盖的土壤和灌溉使有机碳，有机质和土壤活性得到最大程度的增加。较高的NH值I100或I60在未覆盖和灌溉的条件下检测到₄ ⁺ -N形式。由于覆盖或非覆盖加灌溉I100，土壤中的锌含量较低。通过降低灌溉水位20％（I80）和施用覆盖物，玉米的穗重，100粒的重量和玉米粒的产量分别增加了5.4％，4.6％和16.1％。本研究的结果得出结论，认为在玉米生产系统中采用土壤覆盖+适度灌溉（作物蒸散量的80％）被认为是修正钙质土壤，节省灌溉水以及维持/提高干旱地区土壤生产力的有希望的管理实践。