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Applied Sciences
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Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production
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Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 4683

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bongani Ncube

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Interests: Farming systems, soil fertility management, water and sanitation, water governance, indigenous knowledge
Prof. Dr. Nebo Jovanović

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Earth Science, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Interests: Agricultural water management, modelling, soil physics, water resources management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to technological solutions for agricultural production, focusing on the role of water technologies. In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of technologies to conserve and improve water use efficiency in agricultural production. Many studies have been carried out to demonstrate the benefits of water-saving technologies, but knowledge tends to be scattered among different publications. The potential technologies include wetting front detectors, rainwater harvesting, and smart farming technologies, to mention a few. There is a need to document them all in relation to farming systems to achieve more significant impact on people’s livelihoods and food security. Which technologies that have the potential to show real benefits for farming systems? The scope of the Special Issue therefore concerns technological solutions relating to a range of water technologies, including, but not limited to: the harvesting of water, soil water conservation (including technologies to reduce evapotranspiration), and efficient water use from plot to basin levels.

Prof. Dr. Bongani Ncube
Prof. Dr. Nebo Jovanović
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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

  • technological solutions
  • water use efficiency
  • water conservation
  • innovation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 1670 KiB  
Article
A Decision Support System That Considers Risk and Site Specificity in the Assessment of Irrigation Water Quality (IrrigWQ)
by Heinrich M. du Plessis, John G. Annandale and Nico Benadé
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(23), 12625; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132312625 - 23 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 584
Abstract
Irrigators are increasingly challenged to maintain or even increase production using less water, sometimes of poorer quality, and often from unconventional sources. This paper describes the main features of a newly developed software-based Decision Support System (DSS), with which the fitness for use [...] Read more.
Irrigators are increasingly challenged to maintain or even increase production using less water, sometimes of poorer quality, and often from unconventional sources. This paper describes the main features of a newly developed software-based Decision Support System (DSS), with which the fitness for use (FFU) of water for irrigation (IrrigWQ) can be assessed. The assessment considers site-specific factors, several non-traditional water constituents, and the risk of negative effects. The water balance components of a cropping system and the redistribution of solutes within a soil profile are assessed with a simplified soil water balance and chemistry model. User-friendly, colour-coded output highlights the expected effects of water constituents on soil quality, crop yield and quality, and irrigation infrastructure. Because IrrigWQ uses mainly internationally accepted cause–effect relationships to assess the effect of water quality constituents, it is expected to find universal acceptance and application among users. IrrigWQ also caters for calculating so-called Water Quality Requirements (WQRs). WQRs indicate the threshold levels of water quality constituents for irrigation at specified levels of acceptability or risk. WQRs assist water resource managers in setting site-specific maximum threshold levels of water quality constituents that can be tolerated in a water source before impacting negatively on successful irrigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production)
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14 pages, 2606 KiB  
Article
Deriving Surface Water Storage and Curve Numbers from Rainfall–Runoff Relationships in Conventional and Minimum Tillage Systems in Gwanda, Zimbabwe
by Walter Mupangwa, Bongani Ncube, Lovemore Chipindu, Isaiah Nyagumbo and Clementine Denga-Mupangwa
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(17), 9623; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13179623 - 25 Aug 2023
Viewed by 740
Abstract
Soil water availability is one of the major constraints limiting crop productivity under semi-arid conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Crop models are tools that can be used to explain and predict the effect of improved technologies on runoff and soil water availability, and their [...] Read more.
Soil water availability is one of the major constraints limiting crop productivity under semi-arid conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Crop models are tools that can be used to explain and predict the effect of improved technologies on runoff and soil water availability, and their impact on crop productivity. The study hypothesized that minimum tillage treatments (planting basins and ripper) retain more rainwater and reduce runoff generation compared to conventional tillage treatments in maize-based cropping systems. Runoff plots were established on-farm and surface runoff was collected after each daily rainfall event. Surface water storage and curve number for each conventional and minimum tillage treatment were derived from the runoff and rainfall amounts measured over two growing seasons. Daily rainfall events of 9–76 mm generated runoff in both conventional and minimum tillage treatments. Planting basins retained more rainwater (12–19%) and reduced runoff generation (40–51%) than the conventional and ripper tillage treatments. Runoff generation in the tillage treatments varied with soil texture. Conventional and double ploughing treatments recorded more runoff (11–12%) in loamy sands than in sandy soil. Surface water storage and curve numbers from tillage treatments were consistent with runoff results and with conventional treatments, having higher curve numbers than minimum tillage practices. Conventional and ripper tillage practices have similar runoff potential as demonstrated by their curve numbers generated in this study. Curve numbers of 75–76 for conventional and 72–74 for minimum tillage systems are practical under light-textured soil and a land slope of <2% when conventional and minimum tillage practices are implemented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production)
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17 pages, 1151 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Salinity and Nutrient Regimes on the Agro-Morphological Traits and Water Use Efficiency of Tomato under Hydroponic Conditions
by Rangaswamy Madugundu, Khalid A. Al-Gaadi, ElKamil Tola, Virupakshagouda C. Patil and Nick Sigrimis
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(17), 9564; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13179564 - 24 Aug 2023
Viewed by 959
Abstract
The effects of saline water on three greenhouse tomato cultivars (Feisty-Red, Ghandowra-F1, and Valouro-RZ) under three salinity concentrations (S1, ~2.5 dS m−1; S2, ~6.0 dS m−1; and ~9.0 dS m−1) and four nutrient regimes (N1–N4) were studied [...] Read more.
The effects of saline water on three greenhouse tomato cultivars (Feisty-Red, Ghandowra-F1, and Valouro-RZ) under three salinity concentrations (S1, ~2.5 dS m−1; S2, ~6.0 dS m−1; and ~9.0 dS m−1) and four nutrient regimes (N1–N4) were studied by evaluating the vegetative growth, chlorophyll content, leaf area, water use efficiency (WUE), and fruit yield of the cultivars. Vegetative growth parameters, such as plant height, leaf area, and stem diameter, were negatively correlated with increased levels of salinity. Also, the lowest WUE was noted for the high-salinity (~9.0 dS m−1) treatments. The Valouro-RZ cultivar performed better in terms of vegetative growth parameters when compared to both the Ghandowra-F1 and Feisty-Red cultivars. The plants grafted onto Maxifort rootstock showed more tolerance to salinity stress, with significant differences in plant growth, tomato yield, and WUE when compared with the non-grafted plants. The use of a modified nutrient solution (N2) in combination with moderately saline water (S2, ~6.0 dS m−1) resulted in a high mean yield (30.7 kg m−2), with a reduction of about ~1.6% compared with the mean yield of the control (i.e., the combination of S1 and N1), which was estimated to be about 31.2 kg m−2. High salinity significantly affected the mean WUE, which was the highest at 31.3 kg m−3 for the control plants (low salinity—S1), followed by the moderate-salinity (S2) plants at 30.4 kg m−3, and the lowest mean WUE was recorded for the high-salinity (S3) plants at 17.7 kg m−3. These results indicate that a combination of grafting onto rootstocks and using an appropriate nutrient recipe (i.e., N2 in this study) can mitigate the negative effects of salt stress on tomato plants grown under hydroponic conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production)
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11 pages, 1351 KiB  
Article
Condition and Performance Assessment of Irrigation Infrastructure at Agri-Parks in Gauteng Province, South Africa
by Macdex Mutema, Khumbulani Dhavu and Manoshi Mothapo
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 5040; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13085040 - 17 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1421
Abstract
South African agriculture accounts for 62% of the national water demand. Almost 45% of the water is wasted. Therefore, irrigation systems need to improve their water-use efficiency (WUE). However, the WUE of smallholder irrigation schemes in the country, including Agri-Parks, is not precisely [...] Read more.
South African agriculture accounts for 62% of the national water demand. Almost 45% of the water is wasted. Therefore, irrigation systems need to improve their water-use efficiency (WUE). However, the WUE of smallholder irrigation schemes in the country, including Agri-Parks, is not precisely known. A study was performed at four Agri-Parks (Rooiwal, Soshanguve, Tarlton, and Westonaria) in Gauteng province to assess the condition and performance of the irrigation systems, as part of a project that aimed to develop a WUE model for smallholder irrigation systems. The Agri-Parks were equipped with efficient irrigation systems in forms of drip and microjets. The assessments were performed at the system component level in February–March 2021. A Condition Assessment Model (CAM), developed by ARC-NRE/AE, was used for the condition assessment. Enumerators observed the system components visually and assigned conditions, which they uploaded into the model to generate condition indices (CIs). Water conveyance efficiency (CE) and distribution uniformity (DU) were assessed on delivery and infield systems, respectively. The CI values ranged 4–6, implying significant deterioration had occurred. The CE was 61–78%, while the DU was 60–95%. The infield system CI correlated positively with the DU, suggesting the CI could predict the DU in drip systems, which was encouraging for the proposed WUE model. However, further research covering a longer period and more Agri-Parks is recommended. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Science Technologies for Optimising Agricultural Production)
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