Limitations To Efficient Water Use In Crop Production

First title in a major new seriesAddresses improving water productivity to relieve problems of scarcity and competition to provide for food and environmental securityDraws from scientists having a multitude of disciplines to approach this important problemIn a large number of developing countries, policy makers and researchers are increasingly aware of the conflicting demands on water, and look at agriculture to be more effective in its use of water. Focusing on both irrigated and rain-fed agriculture, this book gives a state of the art review of the limits and opportunities for improving water productivity in crop production. It demonstrates how efficiency of water use can be enhanced to maximize yields. The book represents the first in a new series of volumes resulting from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, a research program conducted by the CGIAR's Future Harvest Centres, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners worldwide. It will be of significant interest to those working in areas of soil and crop science, water management, irrigation, and development studies.

Make the best use of available water for your crops! Water Use in Crop Production explores innovative methods that determine how much water certain crops need, in certain climates, in order to ensure adequate plant growth and help eliminate water waste. Through this informative book, agronomists, growers, researchers, and graduate students will find methods and techniques for effective water management that will save money and conserve water. Water Use in Crop Production will enable you enhance crop quality and quantity and save one of the earth's most important resource. Comprehensive and thorough, this essential book combines two vital needs, food and water, and examines what must be done in order to keep up with the ever-growing human population. Explaining conservation techniques used in Argentina, Australia, Israel, Morocco, New Zealand, the Philippines, Spain, and the United States, Water Use in Crop Production will help you achieve this goal as it discusses water management measures including: avoiding excessive deep percolation reducing runoff lessening water evaporation through methods such as reducing the capillary water flow to the surface of the soil determining the rates at which water is demanded and can be supplied in a specific area to create a plan for limiting water loss studying the root structure of plants to calculate how much water they need using deficit irrigation to help plants save water for future use evaluating citrus water use through the Penman-Monteith model Containing charts, tables, and examples of the concepts it discusses, this book is the culmination of the latest studies on water storage. Water Use in Crop Production provides you with reliable strategies and methods that will help you lessen water expenditures and improve the vitality of crops anywhere in the world.

"Upholding the high standard of quality set by the previous edition, this two-volume second edition offers a vast array of recent peer-reviewed articles. It showcases research and practices with added sections on ISTIC-World Soil Information, root growth and agricultural management, nitrate leaching management, podzols, paramos soils, water repellant soils, rare earth elements, and more. With hundreds of entries covering tillage, irrigation, erosion control, ground water, and soil degradation, the book offers quick access to all branches of soil science, from mineralology and physics, to soil management, restoration, and global warming."--Publisher's website.

For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate. More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face. Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).

This is the first volume to provide comprehensive coverage of the biology of water use efficiency at molecular, cellular, whole plant and community levels. While several works have included the phenomenon of water use efficiency, and others have concentrated on an agronomic framework, this book represents the first detailed treatment with a biological focus. The volume sets out the definitions applicable to water use efficiency, the fundamental physiology and biochemistry governing the efficiency of carbon vs water loss, the environmental regulation of this process and the detailed physiological basis by which the plant exerts control over such efficiency. It is aimed at researchers and professionals in plant physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, developmental biology and agriculture. It will also inform those involved in formulating research and development policy in this topic around the world.