high groundwater salinity, a high water table and secondary soil salinization are dominant conditions in eastern isfahan province, iran. this region has a low annual rainfall, high annual evaporation demand, saline soils and limited fresh water supplies. to investigate the effects of irrigation deficit and salinity on cantaloupe (cucumis melo l. var. cantalupensis) production, a field experimen...

Water resource management is becoming increasingly challenging in northern China because of the rapid increase in water demand and decline in water supply due to climate change. We provide a case study demonstrating the importance of integrated watershed management in sustaining water resources in Chifeng City, northern China. We examine the consequences of various climate change scenarios and ...

Global food demand will strongly rise over the next decades, due to population growth, average income increases, and trends towards higher consumption of animal products. Agricultural and food production already account for 70 percent of total freshwater withdrawals in the world. In addition, future water demand from private households, industry and for environmental purposes will also rise. Ov...

Drought and salinity are major factors limiting agriculture in many regions in the world, and their importance is predicted to even increase in the near future in parallel with the ongoing global warming and climate changes. Soil and rhizosphere microbes are potential resources for counteracting such abiotic stresses in plants. The knowledge on the roles of root microorganisms in retaining soil...

Hay and silage crops are integral parts of beef production in the Great Plains. In the southern Great Plains, a growing dairy industry is adding demand for silage and hay. Corn silage has long served the region well, producing consistent high quality silage. However, many areas of the southern Great Plains no longer have the irrigation capacity to successfully produce corn silage. Forage sorghu...

abstract water pricing is a policy instrument for improving water efficiency, reducing water demand, management of the irrigation systems and recovering costs. the underlying principle of water pricing is that it should reflect the opportunity cost of water. in this study, parametric mathematical programming approache were used to estimate the willingness of farmers to pay for groundwater under...

Accurate estimates of daily crop evapotranspiration (ET) are needed for efficient irrigation management in regions where crop water demand exceeds rainfall. Daily grass or alfalfa reference ET values and crop coefficients are widely used to estimate crop water demand. Inaccurate reference ET estimates can hence have a tremendous impact on irrigation costs and the demands on freshwater resources...

Polyacrylamide (PAM) use in irrigation for erosion control has increased water infiltration and reduced soil erosion. This has improved runoff water quality via lower concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, and pesticides, and decreased biological oxygen demand. Since non-toxic high molecular weight anionic PAMs removed clay size sediment particles in flowing water, we hypothesized that PAM wo...