According to the characteristics of seasonal drought happened in order to solve the potato drought resistance problem such as green shoots, seedling drought, after the autumn crop harvest in dry-farming areas of Southern Ningxia during 2013—2015, a field experiment was conducted to study the different tillage with mulching measures on soil water conservation effect during the fallow period, soil water and temperature, growth and physiological characteristic during the seedling stage of potato, and tuber yield and components. The treatments comprised three tillage systems in the main plots, i.e., no-tillage, subsoiling and plowing tillage, and three mulching methods in the subplots, i.e., plastic-film mulch, straw mulch and no mulch, which were in a replicated split plot design. The results showed that among the tillage systems, the polythene film and straw mulch significantly influenced the soil water and temperature status storage, the leaf protective enzyme activity was decreased, potato seedling growth was promoted, and tuber yield was increased. Meanwhile, the significant differences were found in the interaction of tillage and mulching. In the late terminal fallow period, among the same tillage methods, the mean soil water storages (0~200cm) in the polythene film and straw mulch plots were significantly increased by 5.1% and 7.3%, respectively, compared with no mulching plot. The soil water storage was significantly 10.5% and 9.2% higher during potato seedling growth in the polythene film and straw mulch treatments than that of the no mulching treatment. Among the same tillage methods, the polythene film mulch significantly increased the mean topsoil (0~25cm) temperature by 1.9℃, whereas the straw mulch significantly reduced the soil temperature by 3.4℃ during emergence. Meanwhile, the film and straw mulch were more effective at increasing the emergence, plant height and biomass accumulation at potato seedling stage, compared with NM. Among all the treatment combinations, the highest mean potato tuber yields and commodity rates were obtained under the case of subsoiling in combination with straw mulch, which were significantly higher by 40.0% and 14.9% than that of conventional tillage in combination with no mulch. Therefore, in consideration of climatic and environmental feasibility, the subsoiling combined with straw mulch was a more favorable farming practice for drought resistance in seedlings and for increasing potato production, and it had a great potential to be adopted in the dry-farming areas of southern Ningxia.