Rice is a heavy consumer of fresh water and approximately 60% of the fresh water is used for rice production. Traditional lowland rice with continuous flooding requires relatively high water inputs and its sustainability is threatened by the increase of water shortage. In recent years, water-saving rice production techniques have been developed in China and in other water-limited environments, including alternating wetting and drying (AWD), aerobic rice, and ground-cover rice production systems (GCRPS), also called “plastic film mulched dryland rice". GCRPS is a promising new production technology to grow rice using less water, it has been reported to save up to 60% of the water usually needed growing paddy rice without causing any significant reduction in grain yields.
Field experiments with three treatments, upland rice cultivation without mulching (UC), upland cultivation with film mulching (FM), traditional paddy rice cultivation (CK) in two seasons were carried out to study the effects of rice mulching cultivation on root and leaf traits, soil nutrient content and microbial activities. All plots were enclosed by isolating dams of 50 cm width and 15 cm height to assure independent hydrological conditions. Except traditional paddy rice production (CK), the rice field were irrigated only at the time when the rice was sensitive to water stress i.e. one week after transplanting, panicle illumination and heading. Dynamic changes of soil chemical properties and soil enzyme activities were monitored at tillering, heading and ripening stage by collecting soil samples from rhizosphere. 
The results indicated that film mulching (FM) could increase soil temperature by 1-3℃ than UC and CK treatments, total root length and specific root length at heading stage were also increased compared to UC treatment. Water potential of flag leaf and the second lower leaf of the rice plant was in the decreasing order: CK>FM>UC. There was no significant difference in chlorophyll content of leaf at tillering stage among the three treatments. However, film mulching treatment (FM) significantly increased chlorophyll contents of leaf by 29.4% and 15.2% at heading stage and 74.4% and 38.9% at ripening stage compared to UC and CK treatment respectively. In comparison with UC treatment, FM treatment led to an increase in grain yield by 10.6% and 12.5% respectively at early and late season, there was no significant yield difference between FM treatment and CK treatment. Film mulching did not cause changes in soil nutrient content except that total P, available N occasionally increased at tillering stage. However, soil fertility index especially total P, available P and available K were decreased by 25.9%, 31.9%, 16.2% respectively than CK treatment at heading stage, there was no obvious difference of soil fertility among UC, FM and CK treatments except for effective N content at ripening. Compared to CK treatment,, FM treatment could increase the amount of soil bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes by 2 to 5 folds, increase soil enzyme activity at tillering, heading and ripening stage, especially sucrase activity by 42.8%, 28.8% and 69.9%，catalase activity by 13.8%，81.3%，17.4% respectively. 
The above results suggest that film mulching could improve the water utilization efficiency in rice production. It could also enhance the release of soil nutrient and increase decomposition of soil organic matter through increasing the amount of soil microbes and soil enzyme activity, which increased the availability of nutrient elements for rice plants. However, soil nutrient deficiency in the late stage of rice growth may be a problem for upland rice cultivation under film mulching treatment（FM）.