Towards More Sustainable and Profitable Approaches to Manage Nitrogen and Water in Horticulture and Broadacre Crop Production

Dear Colleagues,

Improvements achieved in irrigation systems and crop management over the last decades, together with the introduction of high-yielding varieties, have contributed to increase food and fibre production worldwide. While crucial to meet the food demand of the increasing global population, these improvements, however, should go hand in hand with strategies aimed at optimizing irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer management if the potential yield of crops is to be achieved without compromising the availability of water resources and minimizing the impact on the environment. This is critical for the sustainability of the irrigation sector.

Best nitrogen (N) management practises are required to optimise N use efficiency in commercial crops to ensure that adequate nutrients are available to supply the current demand of the plant. Typically, nutrient budgets and the 4 Rs approach (right rate, right time, right placement and right source) are used to guide the quantity and timing of fertilizer application. This approach involves application in proportion to the demand of the crop and timed so that fertilizers are not in excess when the plant does not have the capacity for uptake.

More efficient irrigation systems and precision agriculture may be able to improve the productive capacity of crops through optimising the water-nutrient absorbing capacity of the roots and internal distribution to fruit and plant regulation so that yield potential is fully realised. In turn, nutrient losses to groundwater and the atmosphere or soil accumulation and imbalances, which lead to exposure of plants to sub-optimal conditions at critical growth stages, are avoided. Secondary sources of nutrients in agricultural systems include soil organic matter, organic amendments and in irrigation water. Nutrients are found in different fractions of organic matter and inorganic forms, which are more or less plant-available, depending on an array of soil quality-organic matter chemistry-synthetic fertilizer interactions.

The Special Issue here presented will focus on research aimed at investigating the following: (i) the effects of organic and/or mineral fertilizers alone or in combination with irrigation strategies on irrigated horticulture and broadacre crop production; (ii) strategies to improve nutrient uptake efficiency in field conditions, and; (iii) novel tools for monitoring plant nutrient status.

Dr. Carlos Ballester-Lurbe
Dr. Wendy Quayle
Guest Editor

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• soil-nutrient-plant interactions
• nitrogen use efficiency
• irrigation-nitrogen interaction
• soil organic amendments
• slow release nitrogen fertilizers
• fertilizer placement
• fertigation
• salinity
• precision agriculture
• remote sensing