To meet the challenge of a limited and costly water supply, South African sugarcane growers will have to find ways of increasing the efficiency of irrigation to maintain high cane and sucrose yields. The term ‘water use efficiency’ (WUE) is generally used as a measure of the overall effectiveness of water (either rainfall or irrigation, or both) for crop production. WUE can be defined as cane y...

Water management and utilization is an ongoing problem in developing countries with semi-arid to arid climates such as Afghanistan. The lack of effective irrigation systems are oftentimes the most limiting factor for maximizing agricultural productivity in these countries. In Afghanistan, the most widely used irrigation methods are basin/border for cereal crops and furrow for vegetables and gra...

The North China Plain is one of the most important grain production regions in China, but is facing serious water shortages. To achieve a balance between water use and the need for food self-sufficiency, new water efficient irrigation strategies need to be developed that balance water use with farmer net return. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis Wheat (CERES-Wheat model) was calibrated an...

Rangeland plant productivity and species composition are affected by moisture availability and grazing intensity. We examined warmand cool-season grass productivity and relative distribution on grazed and ungrazed sites, receiving either natural precipitation or precipitation plus limited supplemental irrigation. The amount of additional water varied depending on rainfall during the previous we...

Cover crops (CCs) can enhance the sustainability and resiliency of agroecosystems by providing multiple ecosystem benefits, including soil quality improvement. However, in areas with limited precipitation such as southwestern USA, cover cropping is challenging. With water, it may be difficult to raise for realizing benefits. Research was conducted at two sites New Mexico over years determine if...

Pasture performance of 924 dairy farms in a major irrigation district of Australia was investigated for their water use and water productivity during the 2015-2016 summer which was the peak irrigation period. Using satellite images from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, estimates of crop coefficient (Kc) were determined on the basis of a strong linear relationship between crop evapotranspiration (ETc) ...

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grows in dry season but summer maize (Zea mays L.) coincides with rainfall in the North China Plain (NCP). Increasing rainfall use efficiency and harmonizing its utilization between the two species is an effective way to mitigate impact on groundwater deriving from wheat irrigation. One to four times water supply (W1, to W4) were employed in wheat, three wate...