Influence of Wheat Straw Return on Yield and Grain Quality in Different Direct-Seeding Rice Production Systems

Direct-seeding methods have received growing interest from rice growers. Wheat straw return is an important measure in rice-wheat rotation system. This study aimed to investigate the influence of wheat straw return on the yield and grain quality in different direct-seeding rice production systems. A split-plot design was adopted for the on-farm trial. The main plots were treated with and without wheat straw return. Dry and wet direct-seeding rice production systems were used in the split plots. The results showed that the yield of direct-seeding rice was reduced by 4.2–7.3% due to wheat straw return, which may be related to a negative effect of wheat straw return on the tiller number (p p p p p p p < 0.05) and the breakdown of the RVA parameters decreased, and the setback of the RVA parameters increased. The above results indicated that wheat straw return reduced the yield, nutritional quality, and appearance quality of direct-seeding rice but improved the cooking quality of the grain. Although using the wet direct-seeding method is beneficial to improving the yield, it negatively impacts the grain quality of direct-seeding rice