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Agronomy
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Impact of Irrigation or Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop...
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Impact of Irrigation or Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop Growth

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Cropping Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 3630

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maomao Hou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350000, China
Interests: agricultural water management; irrigation and water use; fertilizers; plant physiology; crop yield and quality; environmental pollution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water is a core element of soil ecosystems, and its dynamic changes directly affect soil physical structure, chemical properties, and microbial community activity, thereby regulating crop growth, development, yield, and quality formation. Unsuitable irrigation and drainage practices may lead to soil degradation, nutrient loss, salinization, waterlogging, or even increased greenhouse gas emissions, posing serious challenges to sustainable agricultural development. To explore the scientific mechanisms and technological optimization of agricultural water management, this Special Issue focuses on the theme of “Impact of Irrigation and Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop Growth", calling for original research articles and reviews. The aim is to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the efficient use and the ecological security of agricultural water resources worldwide.

Core topics include, but are not limited to, the following directions:

  1. Irrigation/drainage and Soil Environment
  • Effects of irrigation or drainage on soil pore structure, aggregate stability, salt migration, and organic matter transformation.
  • Changes in soil microbial community structure and function under water regulation and their coupling mechanisms with nutrient cycling.
  1. Irrigation/drainage and Crop Growth
  • Impact of different irrigation methods (e.g., drip irrigation, flood irrigation, and subsurface irrigation), water quality (e.g., reclaimed water and non-reclaimed water), or drainage measures on crop root development, photosynthetic efficiency, yield formation, and quality indicators.
  • Correlation analysis between water stress (drought or waterlogging) and crop disease occurrence.
  1. Comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment and Prediction
  •  Pathways and mitigation strategies for nitrogen and phosphorus loss during irrigation or drainage.
  •  Mechanisms driving CH4 and N2O emissions under agricultural water management.
  •  AI-based models for irrigation water quality prediction and pollutant identification.
  •  Dynamic monitoring in drought/waterlogging-prone areas.
  1. Technology Integration and Innovation
  •  Smart monitoring and evaluation of irrigation water use in medium- and large-scale irrigation districts.
  •  Applications of remote sensing and IoT technologies in precision irrigation.
  •  Synergistic regulation strategies for water-saving irrigation and ecological drainage.
  •  Integration of agricultural machinery and agronomic practices in irrigation or drainage.

This Special Issue encourages interdisciplinary research, particularly studies incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, remote sensing inversion, and big data analytics. By elucidating the interactions among water, soil, and crops, we aim to advance high-quality development for agricultural irrigation and drainage management.

We sincerely invite researchers to contribute original research or review papers to jointly provide innovative ideas and solutions for a sustainable future in irrigated agriculture.

We look forward to your valuable contributions.

Prof. Dr. Maomao Hou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • irrigation
  • irrigation water quality
  • irrigation water use
  • irrigation with marginal-quality water
  • irrigation district
  • drainage
  • soil environment
  • nutrient loss
  • non-point source pollution
  • greenhouse gases
  • crop growth
  • water use efficiency
  • nutrient use efficiency

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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18 pages, 7161 KB  
Article
Assessment of the Impact of the Irrigation Regime and the Application of Fermented Organic Fertilizers on Soil Salinity Dynamics and Alfalfa Growth in Coastal Saline–Alkaline Land
by Qian Yang, Shanshan Shen, Qiu Jin and Jingnan Chen
Agronomy 2026, 16(1), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16010117 - 1 Jan 2026
Viewed by 810
Abstract
Alfalfa cultivation is an effective way to achieve soil improvement while utilizing saline soils. Irrigation and drainage, as physical measures to leach salts, can effectively reduce the soil salt content, while application of organic fertilizer fermented with an effective microorganism (EM) may further [...] Read more.
Alfalfa cultivation is an effective way to achieve soil improvement while utilizing saline soils. Irrigation and drainage, as physical measures to leach salts, can effectively reduce the soil salt content, while application of organic fertilizer fermented with an effective microorganism (EM) may further enhance the improvement effect of saline–alkaline soil by improving soil fertility and microbial community structure. However, there is still a lack of systematic assessment on the effects of applying these three measures on the saline soil–plant system. In this study, we used alfalfa as the plant material and set three water depths of 8 mm (IR1), 16 mm (IR2), and 24 mm (IR3) under the condition of irrigating every 10 days with remote-controlled timed and quantitative irrigation, which is the most acceptable to farmers in the era of smart agriculture. EM organic fertilizer dosage was designed as 0 kg/ha (CK), 1500 kg/ha (OF1), 3000 kg/ha (OF2), 4500 kg/ha (OF3), and 6000 kg/ha (OF4). The multiple-crop alfalfa yield, quality (crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF)), and soil electrical conductivity (EC) were observed. The results showed that after the application of EM organic fertilizer, the soil’s EC value of fertilized treatments was higher than that of CK, but this difference became smaller with the prolongation of alfalfa’s growing period, implying that EM organic fertilizer could absorb more soil salts by promoting alfalfa’s growth; the water depth was obviously negatively correlated with the soil’s EC value, demonstrating that the increase in the water depth had a stronger ability to reduce the soil salts. By the end of the experiment, the soil’s EC values were reduced by 21.4–43.7% for the treatments. The alfalfa yield was significantly increased by EM organic fertilizer application, and the three alfalfa yields were increased by 63.3–69.1%, 65.4–83.6%, and 52.6–56.2%, respectively, when fertilizer application was elevated from CK to OF4. The highest alfalfa yields were all found at IR2OF4, reaching 1164.7, 2637.3 and 2519.7 t/ha, corresponding to the first, second, and third alfalfa crops, respectively. The analysis of alfalfa quality indexes revealed that higher CP values were found in the IR2 treatments, and increasing fertilizer application from OF1–OF4 resulted in an increase in CP values by 2.4–9.1%, 1.5–7.4%, and 0.8–6.7% for the three alfalfa crops. Relatively low NDF and ADF values were observed for alfalfa under IR2 conditions; however, the application of EM organic fertilizer reduced the NDF and ADF values within a certain range. According to the results of the entropy weight evaluation model, IR3OF4, IR3OF2, and IR3OF3 were the top three treatments with the best overall benefits, respectively, with relative closeness values of 0.71, 0.70, and 0.68, in that order, which suggests that the appropriate water depth is 24 mm, while the appropriate EM organic fertilizer dosage is in the range of 3000–6000 kg/ha. There was a pattern observed in our study, in which the treatments with better overall benefits were better distributed at high water depths, which emphasizes the critical role of the irrigation volume in ameliorating saline soils. The conclusions of the study are intended to provide a practical basis for the comprehensive utilization and sustainable development of saline soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Irrigation or Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop Growth)
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21 pages, 2220 KB  
Article
Phenolic Composition and Antioxidant Capacity of Pistachio Seed Coats at Different Tree Ages Under Saline Irrigation Conditions
by Takudzwa Chirenje, Rebecca Chavez, Sandhya Rijal, Irvin Arroyo, Gary S. Bañuelos and Monika Sommerhalter
Agronomy 2025, 15(12), 2816; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15122816 - 7 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 857
Abstract
Sustaining irrigated agriculture under drought conditions with alternative water sources such as saline groundwater requires understanding their effects on salt-tolerant crops like pistachio. During recent California droughts, pistachio trees planted in 2002, 2009, and 2011 were irrigated with high-saline water containing traces of [...] Read more.
Sustaining irrigated agriculture under drought conditions with alternative water sources such as saline groundwater requires understanding their effects on salt-tolerant crops like pistachio. During recent California droughts, pistachio trees planted in 2002, 2009, and 2011 were irrigated with high-saline water containing traces of boron (B) and selenium (Se). In 2018, irrigation was divided so that half of the trees received low-saline water, while the others continued under high-saline irrigation. Three years later, nuts were harvested to evaluate how irrigation quality affected seed coats, the main storage site of phenolic antioxidants. Sixty seed coat extracts from both irrigation treatments were analyzed for antioxidant capacity (ABTS, DPPH, FRAP and Folin–Ciocalteu assays). Nuts from the oldest trees (planted in 2002) had the highest antioxidant capacity. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) identified gallic acid and nine flavonoids. Catechin, procyanidin B1, cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, and eriodictyol were most abundant in the oldest trees. Irrigation salinity significantly affected gallic acid, quercetin, and isoquercetin, with higher concentrations detected in seed coats from trees receiving continued high-saline irrigation. These compound-specific shifts, together with strong age-dependent patterns, provide insight into how long-term salinity exposure influences phenolic composition in pistachio seed coats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Irrigation or Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop Growth)
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22 pages, 8746 KB  
Article
Water and Nitrogen Management Drive Soil Nutrient Dynamics and Microbial–Enzyme Activity in Silage Maize Systems in Northwest China
by Niu Zhu, Jianfang Wang, Weiwei Ma, Yu Zhang, Chunyu Li, Wanpeng He and Guang Li
Agronomy 2025, 15(10), 2405; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15102405 - 16 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1143
Abstract
Efficient water and nitrogen management is essential for maintaining soil fertility and achieving sustainable agricultural production, especially in arid oasis regions where soil degradation and nutrient loss are common challenges. However, the interactions between irrigation regimes, nitrogen application, and soil biological processes in [...] Read more.
Efficient water and nitrogen management is essential for maintaining soil fertility and achieving sustainable agricultural production, especially in arid oasis regions where soil degradation and nutrient loss are common challenges. However, the interactions between irrigation regimes, nitrogen application, and soil biological processes in such environments remain insufficiently understood. This study investigated the effects of water and nitrogen management on the sustainability of sandy soil nutrients within the context of the sustainable development goals during silage maize cultivation in the oasis irrigation area of the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China. Four irrigation regimes and five nitrogen management regimes were tested. The results indicate that ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) varied significantly during the jointing stage (W4 treatment), ranging from 3.52 to 16.38 mg/kg (p < 0.05). Nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) exhibited significant differences during the tasseling stage (W1 treatment), with a range of 6.16–21.58 mg/kg (p < 0.05). Soil total phosphorus (STP) gradually declined from early to late growth stages, ranging from 0.20 to 0.97 g/kg. Regarding enzyme activity, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) increased progressively throughout the growth period, with a range of 0.02–0.14 mg/g/d, while urease (URE) showed a declining trend, ranging from 0.25 to 0.66 mg/g/d. Water management exerted a significant negative effect on soil enzyme activity (p < 0.05), while nitrogen fertilization had a minimal impact on soil microbial communities (p > 0.05). Growth stage and irrigation regime are key regulators of the soil–microbe–enzyme activity system. The crop’s nutrient demand cycles and microbially mediated nutrient transformations exhibited strong dependence on growth stage. Enzyme activity is notably and positively affected by nitrogen inputs and plant developmental stages, while microbial biomass is mainly regulated by soil C, N, and P contents and enzyme activities. These findings provide a scientific basis for implementing water-saving irrigation and high-efficiency fertilization strategies in oasis agricultural systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Irrigation or Drainage on Soil Environment and Crop Growth)
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