Crop water productivity of cash crops under drip irrigation combined with soil mulching

Integration of advanced irrigation systems and technology is essential to improve crop water productivity and yields, especially in developing countries. This study aims at investigating the effects of adopting a drip irrigation system combined with hand-dug wells on crop water productivity and yields of household farmers and their perception on the proposed scheme over two cropping seasons in the Haramaya District, Ethiopia. We chose three locally called “Kebeles” within the District, and selected a certain number of household farmers that had similar characteristics within each Kebele. The selected farmers had practiced both the proposed drip irrigation with private hand-dug wells water supply (intervention pilots) and traditionally-used surface irrigation with communal water supply (non-intervention pilots) schemes. We also conducted interviews with the selected household farmers, personal observations, and measurements on crop water productivity and yields for both intervention and non-intervention pilots. We found that the proposed drip irrigation system significantly improved the crop productivity and yields of the farmers. More importantly, findings indicated that the use of drip irrigation system combined with hand-dug well water supplies reduced the over-exploitation of water (water savings) and labor-intensive manual-irrigation. The latter particularly helped women to work less on their farm works and thus provided them a flexible system to expand their plot sizes and grow a variety of crops. Overall, the drip irrigation system with water supply from hand-dug wells is highly recommended as it allows a flexible system for household farmers and provides an opportunity to expand their plot sizes with a variety of crops, which is also expected to mitigate the negative implications of climate change on freshwater water resources and crop productivity. However, the farmers of the Haramaya District expressed their need on capacity building, financial and technical supports from local to regional governments and other agencies to ensure an efficient and cost-effective drip irrigation system and to further improve their crop water productivity and yield, food self-sufficieny, and livelihoods. It is also important to consider market-based farming approaches, while promoting efficient irrigation systems and self-supply to ensure quick investment returns. This study recommends to adopt and expand the proposed drip irrigation system at household levels in Sub-Saharan and other similar regions.

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Optimization of drip irrigation and fertilization regimes for high grain yield, crop water productivity and economic benefits of spring maize in Northwest China

Agricultural Water Management ◽

10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105986 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 230 ◽

pp. 105986 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Haiyang Zou ◽

Junliang Fan ◽

Fucang Zhang ◽

Youzhen Xiang ◽

Lifeng Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Grain Yield ◽

Drip Irrigation ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Northwest China ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Crop Water ◽

Crop Water Productivity ◽

Spring Maize

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Physical versus economic water footprints in crop production: a spatial and temporal analysis for China

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-25-169-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 169-191

Author(s):

Xi Yang ◽

La Zhuo ◽

Pengxuan Xie ◽

Hongrong Huang ◽

Bianbian Feng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Value Creation ◽

Crop Production ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Economic Value ◽

Green Water ◽

Crop Water ◽

Grain Crops ◽

Crop Water Productivity ◽

Cash Crops ◽

Trade Offs

Abstract. A core goal of sustainable agricultural water resources management is to implement a lower water footprint (WF), i.e. higher water productivity, and to maximize economic benefits in crop production. However, previous studies mostly focused on crop water productivity from a single physical perspective. Little attention is paid to synergies and trade-offs between water consumption and economic value creation of crop production. Distinguishing between blue and green water composition, grain and cash crops, and irrigation and rainfed production modes in China, this study calculates the production-based WF (PWF) and derives the economic value-based WF (EWF) of 14 major crops in 31 provinces for each year over 2001–2016. The synergy evaluation index (SI) of PWF and EWF is proposed to reveal the synergies and trade-offs of crop water productivity and its economic value from the WF perspective. Results show that both the PWF and EWF of most considered crops in China decreased with the increase in crop yield and prices. The high (low) values of both the PWF and EWF of grain crops tended to cluster obviously in space and there existed a huge difference between blue and green water in economic value creation. Moreover, the SI revealed a serious incongruity between PWFs and EWFs both in grain and cash crops. Negative SI values occurred mostly in north-west China for grain crops, and overall more often and with lower values for cash crops. Unreasonable regional planting structure and crop prices resulted in this incongruity, suggesting the need to promote regional coordinated development to adjust the planting structure according to local conditions and to regulate crop prices rationally.

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Irrigation Management Effects on Crop Water Productivity for Maize Production in the Texas High Plains

Water Conservation Science and Engineering ◽

10.1007/s41101-020-00100-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 37-43

Author(s):

Gary W. Marek ◽

Thomas H. Marek ◽

Steven R. Evett ◽

Yong Chen ◽

Kevin R. Heflin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Productivity ◽

Irrigation Management ◽

High Plains ◽

Crop Water ◽

Maize Production ◽

Crop Water Productivity ◽

Texas High Plains ◽

Management Effects

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Simulated efficient growth-stage-based deficit irrigation strategies for maximizing cotton yield, crop water productivity and net returns

Agricultural Water Management ◽

10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106840 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 250 ◽

pp. 106840

Author(s):

Sushil Kumar Himanshu ◽

Yubing Fan ◽

Srinivasulu Ale ◽

James Bordovsky

Keyword(s):

Deficit Irrigation ◽

Growth Stage ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Cotton Yield ◽

Crop Water ◽

Net Returns ◽

Crop Water Productivity

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Maize Seedling Establishment, Grain Yield and Crop Water Productivity Response to Seed Priming and Irrigation Management in a Mediterranean Arid Environment

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11040756 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 756

Author(s):

AbdAllah M. El-Sanatawy ◽

Ahmed S. M. El-Kholy ◽

Mohamed M. A. Ali ◽

Mohamed F. Awad ◽

Elsayed Mansour

Keyword(s):

Grain Yield ◽

Deficit Irrigation ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Irrigation Management ◽

Seed Priming ◽

Severe Drought ◽

Arid Environments ◽

Crop Water ◽

Crop Water Productivity ◽

Irrigation Regimes

Water shortage is a major environmental stress that destructively impacts maize production, particularly in arid regions. Therefore, improving irrigation management and increasing productivity per unit of water applied are needed, especially under the rising temperature and precipitation fluctuations induced by climate change. Laboratory and field trials were carried out in the present study, which were aimed at assessing the possibility of promoting maize germination, growth, grain yield and crop water productivity (CWP) using seed priming under different irrigation regimes. Two seed priming treatments, i.e., hydro-priming and hardening versus unprimed seeds, were applied under four irrigation regimes, i.e., 120, 100, 80 and 60% of estimated crop evapotranspiration (ETc). The obtained results indicated that increasing irrigation water from 100% up to 120% ETc did not significantly increase grain yield or contributing traits, while it decreased CWP. Deficit irrigation of 80 and 60% ETc gradually decreased grain yield and all attributed traits. Seed priming significantly ameliorated seedlings’ vigor as indicated by earlier germination, higher germination percentage, longer roots and shoots, and heavier fresh and dry weight than unprimed seeds with the superiority of hardening treatment. Additionally, under field conditions, seed priming significantly increased grain yield, yield contributing traits and CWP compared with unprimed treatment. Interestingly, the results reflect the role of seed priming, particularly hardening, in mitigating negative impacts of drought stress and enhancing maize growth, grain yield and attributed traits as well as CWP under deficit irrigation conditions. This was demonstrated by a significant increase in grain yield and CWP under moderate drought and severe drought conditions compared with unprimed treatment. These results highlight that efficient irrigation management and seed priming can increase maize yield and water productivity in arid environments.

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Global Satellite-Based ET Products for the Local Level Irrigation Management: An Application of Irrigation Performance Assessment in the Sugarbelt of Swaziland

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11060705 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 705 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Poolad Karimi ◽

Bhembe Bongani ◽

Megan Blatchford ◽

Charlotte de Fraiture

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Performance Assessment ◽

Management Practices ◽

Local Level ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Irrigation Management ◽

Irrigation Performance ◽

Crop Water ◽

Management Regime ◽

Crop Water Productivity

Remote sensing techniques have been shown, in several studies, to be an extremely effective tool for assessing the performance of irrigated areas at various scales and diverse climatic regions across the world. Open access, ready-made, global ET products were utilized in this first-ever-countrywide irrigation performance assessment study. The study aimed at identifying ‘bright spots’, the highest performing sugarcane growers, and ‘hot spots’, or low performing sugarcane growers. Four remote sensing-derived irrigation performance indicators were applied to over 302 sugarcane growers; equity, adequacy, reliability and crop water productivity. The growers were segmented according to: (i) land holding size or grower scale (ii) management regime, (iii) location of the irrigation schemes and (iv) irrigation method. Five growing seasons, from June 2005 to October 2009, were investigated. The results show while the equity of water distribution is high across all management regimes and locations, adequacy and reliability of water needs improvement in several locations. Given the fact that, in general, water supply was not constrained during the study period, the observed issues with adequacy and reliability of irrigation in some of the schemes were mostly due to poor scheme and farm level water management practices. Sugarcane crop water productivity showed the highest variation among all the indicators, with Estate managed schemes having the highest CWP at 1.57 kg/m3 and the individual growers recording the lowest CWP at 1.14 kg/m3, nearly 30% less. Similarly center pivot systems showed to have the highest CWP at 1.63 kg/m3, which was 30% higher than the CWP in furrow systems. This study showcases the applicability of publicly available global remote sensing products for assessing performance of the irrigated crops at the local level in several aspects.

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