| Experimental study was conducted in arid environment of new sandy land in Linze desert oasis to evaluate
the effect of limited irrigation on soil moisture use and maize grain yield. There are four limited irrigation treatments (in-cluding CK) with different irigation quota (MI1:642 mm, MI2:666 mm，MI3:777 mm，and CK:897 mm) in the whole growing season of maize; each treatment distributes different irrigation water amount in growing stages . The result indicated that the highest use of soil moisture was obtained in MI1 with the least growing season irrigation, and its soil moisture use in 0~100 cm soil layer was higher than MI2，MI3 and CK by 8.0%，10.4% and 14.3% respectively. The highest grain yield was obtained in CK, however, its water use efficiency was the lowest. The highest water use efficiency was obtained in MI2，and its water use fficiency was higher than MI，MI3 and CK by 11.7%, 12. 7% and 17.7% respec-tively. Less amount and more frequent imigation can improve the famland productivity in oasis sandy land with limited water resources carrying capacity. |