A threeyear field experiment was conducted to examine the effects of green manure planting during the winter fallow season and rice straw retention on soil physical and chemical properties and rice yield from a monorice cropping system of Jianghan Plain,central China.The experiments comprised of six treatments,viz.,no rice straw return with only chemical fertilizers(NPK),rice straw burning in situ and chemical fertilizer(RSB+NPK),rice straw mulching and chemical fertilizer(RSM+NPK),green manure planting without rice straw return and with chemical fertilizer(GM+NPK),rice straw strip mulching with green manure planting and chemical fertilizer(RSM+GM+NPK)and a control(CK)with no straw return and chemical fertilizer application.Results revealed that RSM+NPK,GM+NPK and RSM+GM+NPK treatments improved the soil physical properties,and increased soil organic matter,total nitrogen,available nitrogen,available phosphorous and available potassium compared with CK and NPK.The RSB+NPK treatment significantly increased the soil pH and triggered the available phosphorous and available potassium,but had no effect on soil organic matter,soil total nitrogen,available nitrogen.The minimum bulk density,maximum total porosity,soil organic matter,soil total nitrogen,and available potassium were observed in RSM+GM+NPK treatment.The RSM+GM+NPK and GM+NPK were statistically similar with each other for grain yield,but these two treatments recorded significantly higher grain yield than NPK treatment during the 3year experiment.Compared with NPK,the mean of 3 year rice grain yield in RSM+GM+NPK and GM+NPK were significant increased by 9.1% and 8.7%,respectively.The RSM+NPK and RSB+NPK were statistically at par with NPK for grain yield.In conclusion,the RSM+GM+NPK treatment can be an effective way to improve the physicochemical properties of soil,ultimately enhancing the soil fertility and rice yield.