Groundwater resources are scarce in the cold and arid regions of north China. Moreover, regional water resource replenishment without external sources remains difficult.
This water deficit has become a major factor restricting the sustainable development of regional vegetable production. The effective utilization of rainwater harvesting for irrigated agricultural production is necessary to suppress droughts and floods in farming under the semi-arid climate of this area in order to both guarantee a stable supply of vegetables to the market in south and north China and promote the balanced development of regional agriculture–resource–environment integration. In this study, based on continuous simulation and Python modeling, researchers simulated and analyzed the water supply and production effects of irrigation with harvests and stored rainwater on tomatoes under different water supply scenarios from 1992 to 2023. The researchers then designed and tested a water-saving and high-yield project for rainwater-irrigated greenhouses in 2024 and 2025 under natural rainfall conditions in northwestern Hebei Province based on the reference irrigation scheme. The water supply satisfaction rate, water demand satisfaction rate, and volume of water inventory of tomato fields under different water supply scenarios increased with the rainwater tank size, and the corresponding drought yield reduction rate of tomato decreased. Under the actual rainfall scenarios in 2024 and 2025, a 480 m2 greenhouse with a 14.4 m3 rainwater tank for producing tomatoes irrigated with rainwater drip from the greenhouse film collected 127.7 and 120.5 m3 of rainwater, respectively. The volume of the rainwater tank was exceeded 8.3 and 8.0 times, and up to 93.8% and 95.0% of the irrigated groundwater was replaced; additionally, the average yield of the small-fruited tomato 'Beisi' was 50,076.6 kg·hm−2 and 48,110.2 kg·hm−2, reaching 96.1% and 92.3% of the expected yield. Conclusion: The irrigation strategy based on the innovative "greenhouse film–rainwater harvesting–groundwater replenishment" model developed in this study has successfully achieved a high substitution rate of groundwater for greenhouse tomato production in the cold and arid regions of north China while ensuring stable yields by mitigating drought and waterlogging risks.
This model not only provides a replicable technical framework for sustainable agricultural water resource management in semi-arid areas but also offers critical theoretical and practical support for addressing water scarcity and ensuring food security under global climate change.
Sun, M.; Zhang, J.; Qin, J.; Li, H.; Zhang, L. Alternative to Groundwater Drip Irrigation for Tomatoes in Cold and Arid Regions of North China by Rainwater Harvesting from Greenhouse Film. Agronomy 2026, 16, 132. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16010132
Source: MDPI
