BREEDING FOR DRYLAND FARMING

Plant Breeding and Molecular Farming

Advances in Dryland Farming in the Inland Pacific Northwest

Soil amendments can improve the sustainability of agricultural systems by building soil carbon and improving numerous other soil health indicators, including soil structure, water infiltration and retention, bulk density, nutrient availability, and microbial activity. This chapter covers some general considerations relevant to the use of soil amendments followed by a discussion of biosolids, an...

Studying Drought Tolerance in Thymus kotschyanus Accessions for Cultivation in Dryland Farming and Low Efficient Grassland

This study was carried out to evaluate drought stress tolerance in Thymus kotschyanus accessions using a factorial experiment based on a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 5 replications during 2013-2014 in Qom, Iran. The first factor was the accession with 17 levels and the second factor was drought stress with three levels of irrigation including 80% (control), 60% and 40% Field Capacity...

Assessment of productive efficiency for irrigated and dryland wheat farming in Iran using Data Envelopment Analysis

Wheat is widely grown in Iran as a staple food; therefore, the government there encourages farmers to produce wheat (a common agricultural enterprise) by increasing farm productivity and efficiency. The study compares the efficiency of wheat production for dryland (low input) and irrigated (high input) systems across Iranian provinces by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The average techni...

Agronomic options for improving rainfall-use efficiency of crops in dryland farming systems.

Yields of dryland (rainfed) wheat in Australia have increased steadily over the past century despite rainfall being unchanged, indicating that the rainfall-use efficiency has increased. Analyses suggest that at least half of the increase in rainfall-use efficiency can be attributed to improved agronomic management. Various methods of analysing the factors influencing dryland yields and rainfall...