Abstract: Among many extreme climate events, drought is one of the most influential and most serious natural disasters, which affects the growth and development of crops and the formation of yield and thus seriously restricts the development of agricultural economy. We evaluated the drought condition during sugarbeet growth period in northern Xinjiang with the crop water deficit index as a drought index. Drought grade index of sugarbeet in northern Xinjiang was determined by selecting typical drought years and drought index in combination with drought data of Xinjiang over several decades. The spatial and temporal distribution of drought intensity, drought station ratio and drought frequency in different growth stages of sugarbeet in northern Xinjiang in the past 56 years were analyzed. The results showed that drought intensity and the ratio of dry stations in each growth stage of sugarbeet showed a significant downward trend. Among them, the ratio of severe drought stations substantially decreased, the ratio of extreme drought stations showed a trend of no significant decrease, the ratio of light drought stations showed a trend of no significant increase, while the ratio of nondrought stations showed a trend of significant increase. The occurrence frequency of extreme drought in the middle growth stage of sugarbeet was lower than that in the early and late growth stages, and the frequency of mild drought and severe drought was larger than that in early and later stages. The frequency of severe drought in the northern part of northern Xinjiang was higher than that in other regions in the early stage of sugarbeet growth, but it was lower in the later stage. The mild drought in the three stages of sugarbeet growth in most areas of northern Xinjiang occurred more frequently than other grades of drought.

Key words: spring maize, yield, water-fertilizer coupling, semi-arid region of western Liaoning Province, shallow-buried drip irrigation