Increasing Water Use Efficiency Under Climate Extremes
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Irrigation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editors
Interests: dyland agriculture; water use efficiency; cropping systems; soil health; precision agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: dyland agriculture; water use efficiency; varietal trial; crop physiology; drought management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Agricultural systems worldwide are facing increasing pressure from climate extremes, including prolonged droughts, elevated temperatures, heatwaves, and erratic precipitation patterns. These stressors pose significant threats to the productivity, resilience, and long-term sustainability of both crop and livestock systems. As a result, water has emerged as the most critical limiting resource in many parts of the world, highlighting its strategic importance for global food security. In response, improving water use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of crop biomass or yield to water lost through evapotranspiration (ET), has emerged as a central strategy for strengthening the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems amid increasing climatic variability.
This Special Issue invites original research, reviews, and case studies that present innovative, integrated strategies to enhance WUE across scales and farming systems. We welcome contributions that blend scientific rigor with practical relevance, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Dryland farming and crop-livestock integration;
- Water-efficient and climate-resilient crops;
- Soil and water management for improved retention and reduced erosion;
- Innovations in irrigation technologies and scheduling;
- Applications of biochar, polymers, and other soil amendments;
- Digital tools, modeling, and remote sensing for optimizing WUE;
- Socio-economic and policy approaches for equitable water use;
- Systems-based research linking agricultural components.
Our goal is to advance both the science and practice of WUE, helping shape a future where water is managed more efficiently, equitably, and sustainably under intensifying climate pressures.
We look forward to your valuable contributions.
Dr. Sushil Thapa
Prof. Dr. Qingwu Xue
Guest Editors
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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 monthly 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
- crop physiology
- cropping systems
- deficit irrigation
- drought resilience
- dryland agriculture
- evapotranspiration
- precision agriculture
- soil health
- soil-water management
- sustainable agriculture
- systems agriculture
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