| In this study, Jigu 31, one of the main cultivars in summer millet area, was used as experimental material, and agronomic characters, economic characters, dry matter weight, photosynthetic rate, leaf area coefficient, soil water content, soil temperature and chlorophyll content were measured, with the aims to investigate the yield increasing effect of rainfall microcatchment, and thus provide a scientific basis for technique application in the semiarid summer-millet area. The results showed that in comparison with that of CK, the yield of microcatchment treatment was increased by 16.28%, soil water content in the 10～20 cm depth 10%, net photosynthetic rate 15.44%, LAI 11.5%, SPAD 10.07%, respectively. Therefore, rainfall microcatchment has a significant effect on yield, with the physiological mechanism explained as follows. Rainfall microcatchment has favorable effect on water and heat conservation, thus promoting plant growth and development by improved net photosynthetic rate and leaf area index. In addition, dry matter accumulation of root and shoot, number of spikelets and spike grain weight and grain rate were increased. Therefore, rainfall water microcatchment can used as an option for millet growing in semiarid area. |