Abstract: Based on the results of long-term experiments and observation, a case study was conducted in a desert oasis of the Heihe River basin to develop adaptive technologies of oasis agriculture and to evaluate the adaptation potentialities to climate change. It is indicated that technologies, such as ridge furrow irrigation, mixture sowing of crop and concomitant plant, optimizing fertilizer and water application, and promoting the jujube/crop intercropping system , could be applied on a field scale to adapt to climate change and strategies such as readjusting crop structure, extending shelterbelt specification, reducing the frequency of shelterbelt irrigation, and replacing high water consumption trees (Populus simonii) in the oasis defending system with drought-enduring plants, could be adopted at oasis level. The evaluation results suggest that the water saved by adopting these technologies would amount to 2.96 × 108 m3 per year, but without decreasing the oasis agricultural productivity and reducing the oasis stability.

Key words: climate change, osis, water resource, adaptive technology