Special Issue "Water Saving in Agriculture"

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Laura Riesgo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics, Sevilla, Spain
Interests: agricultural economics; water economics; development economics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Irrigation is one of the main water uses, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Without additional water supply, improving water saving is crucial in such areas to free up resources for other uses, and increasingly so in a climate change context. An optimized reallocation must be guided by principles based on the value of water scarcity and the maximization of social welfare. Alongside other regulatory and technological options, economic instruments may provide an operational set of water management strategies.

A number of initiatives can enhance water saving in agriculture, such as technological ones: (i) modernizing irrigation infrastructure; (ii) adopting more efficient irrigation practices (e.g., deficit irrigation); (iii) adopting crops with fewer water requirements or drought-tolerant varieties; but also institutional and economic ones such as: (iv) water pricing on agriculture; (v) implementing water markets; or (vi) water banks.

The aim of this Special Issue is to discuss and exchange different, yet complementary, recent experiences on water-saving strategies in irrigated agriculture as well as new methodological advances on modeling ex ante/ex post the application of such strategies in a climate change context.

Prof. Dr. Laura Riesgo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • irrigation
  • water-saving technologies
  • water markets
  • water banks
  • water pricing
  • climate change

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Integrated Evaluation of the Water Deficit Irrigation Scheme of Indigowoad Root under Mulched Drip Irrigation in Arid Regions of Northwest China Based on the Improved TOPSIS Method
Water 2021, 13(11), 1532; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13111532 - 29 May 2021
Viewed by 709
Abstract
Limited water resources and low water productivity limit the sustainable development of agriculture in northwest China. In this study, drip irrigation under plastic film was used to achieve an optimal water deficit irrigation (WDI) scheme for the cultivation of indigowoad root (Isatis [...] Read more.
Limited water resources and low water productivity limit the sustainable development of agriculture in northwest China. In this study, drip irrigation under plastic film was used to achieve an optimal water deficit irrigation (WDI) scheme for the cultivation of indigowoad root (Isatis tinctoria L.). Field water control experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017. Evaluation of WDI schemes was carried out by considering five indices: water consumption, yield, water use efficiency (WUE), indigo, and (R,S)-goitrin. To enhance the reliability of results, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy weight method (EWM) were adopted to calculate the combined weight of the evaluation index. Finally, an improved technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) that integrated AHP–EWM weights was used to construct a unified, comprehensive evaluation model of indigowoad root under mulched drip irrigation that would produce high yield while saving water. The evaluation results indicated that mild WD (specifically, the V1G1 treatment) was continuously exerted during the vegetative and fleshy root growth periods, which enhanced the WUE and improved the quality of indigowoad root to a certain extent without significantly reducing the yield. These results provide a scientific basis for irrigation of indigowoad in northwest China and other areas with a similar environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Saving in Agriculture)
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Article
Effects of Biochar Addition on Rice Growth and Yield under Water-Saving Irrigation
Water 2021, 13(2), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020209 - 16 Jan 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 672
Abstract
To reveal the effect of biochar addition on rice growth and yield under water-saving irrigation, a 2-year field experiment was carried out to clarify the variations of rice tiller number, plant height, yield components, and irrigation water use efficiency with different biochar application [...] Read more.
To reveal the effect of biochar addition on rice growth and yield under water-saving irrigation, a 2-year field experiment was carried out to clarify the variations of rice tiller number, plant height, yield components, and irrigation water use efficiency with different biochar application amounts (0, 20, 40 t/ha) and irrigation management (flooding irrigation and water-saving irrigation). The results showed that the rice yield with biochar addition (20 and 40 t/ha) was 15.53% and 24.43% higher than that of non-biochar addition paddy fields under water-saving irrigation. The addition of biochar promoted the growth of tillers and plant height, improved the filled grain number, productive panicle number, and seed setting rate, thus affecting rice yield. Rice yield was raised with the increase in the biochar application amount. Under the condition of water-saving irrigation, water deficit had a certain negative effect on the rice growth indexes, resulting in a slight decrease in yield. However, irrigation water input was significantly decreased with water-saving irrigation compare to flooding irrigation. Under the comprehensive effect of water-saving irrigation and biochar application, the irrigation water use efficiency of a rice paddy field with high biochar application (40 t/ha) under water-saving irrigation was the highest, with an average increase of 91.05% compared to a paddy field with flooding irrigation. Therefore, the application of biochar in paddy fields with water-saving irrigation can substantially save irrigation water input, stably increase rice yield, and ultimately improve irrigation water productive efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Saving in Agriculture)
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