Abstract: The field experiment was conducted to study the impract of different tillage depths and fertilizer rates on soil compaction and grain yield in paddy fields in Jianghan plain in two consecutive years（2014—2015）. The results indicated that the effect of deep plowing prior to planting on paddy soil were significant for the soil as compared with shallow plowing and tillage, but after settling throughout the field, the compactness of topsoil was affected weakly, the compaction degree of middle soil was obviously reduced,the compaction degree of the lower soil was obviously increased, then form the structure of “up-loose-down-tightness”, but which had no significant effect on the yield of rice. The reasonable N application rate for mid-rice was 156.5 kg/hm² determined by linear+platform model under the condition of 1∶0.5∶0.8 ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus（P₂O₅） and potassium （K₂O）.

Key words: Jianghan plain, tillage depth, fertilizer rate, soil compaction, rice