Agronomic Principles of Water‐ and Nutrient‐Use Efficiency

Kirkegaard, John A.; Robertson, Michael

doi:10.1002/9781118517994.ch13

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 36 publications

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“…Globally, storage and transfer losses are in the range of 30% (Wallace & Gregory 2002). Run-off and drainage losses may represent another 44%, which means that, after accounting for soil evaporation losses, probably only some 13-18% of water available for irrigation is used in plant transpiration (Wallace & Gregory 2002;Gregory 2004). Additionally, the water requirements of crops vary significantly and change during development, and the WUE could decrease when irrigation is not adjusted accordingly (Zinkernagel et al 2020).…”

Section: Water Use Efficiency (Wue)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water for agriculture: more crop per drop

Geilfus,

Zörb,

Jones

et al. 2024

Plant Biol J

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Global crop production in agriculture depends on water availability. Future scenarios predict increasing occurrence of flash floods and rapidly developing droughts accompanied by heatwaves in humid regions that rely on rain‐fed agriculture. It is challenging to maintain high crop yields, even in arid and drought‐prone regions that depend on irrigation. The average water demand of crops varies significantly, depending on plant species, development stage, and climate. Most crops, such as maize and wheat, require relatively more water during the vegetative phase compared to the ripening phase. In this review, we explain WUE and options to improve water use and thus crop yield. Nutrient management might represent another possibility to manipulate water uptake and use by plants. An emerging topic involves agroforest co‐cultivation, where trees in the system facilitate water transfer through hydraulic lift, benefiting neighbouring crops. Other options to enhance crop yield per water use are discussed.

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Section: Water Use Efficiency (Wue)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water for agriculture: more crop per drop

Geilfus,

Zörb,

Jones

et al. 2024

Plant Biol J

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Managing Drylands for Sustainable Agriculture

Ugarte

Álvaro‐Fuentes

Plaza‐Bonilla

et al. 2019

Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture

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Major constraints to rainfed production systems in the world's drylands include low and highly variable rainfall, nutrient deficiencies and land degradation by wind and water erosion. Although the same principles to cope with these limitations could be in theory applied to all dryland situations, there is no a universal recipe for sustainable dryland agriculture. In this chapter, the authors recall some of the challenges that have been identified for semiarid rainfed farming systems, namely soil conservation, water use efficiency, nutrient use efficiency and climate change mitigation, as well as some sustainable cropping and management strategies that have been formulated and recommended to address them appropriately.To this end, the authors provide examples supporting those practices mainly from semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystems. Among all the strategies discussed in this Chapter, and despite their limitations, the maintenance of a protective crop residue cover and the reduction of tillage operations appear to be the simplest technological options not only to control soil erosion but also to improve water and nutrient use efficiency and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The authors conclude that sustainable agricultural management in drylands should be primarily based on conservation agriculture practices and associated local-based crop residue management systems.

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Agronomic Principles of Water‐ and Nutrient‐Use Efficiency

Cited by 2 publications

References 36 publications

Water for agriculture: more crop per drop

Water for agriculture: more crop per drop

Managing Drylands for Sustainable Agriculture

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