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Agronomy
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Agricultural Water Management in Arid, Semi-arid and Drought Prone Areas—2nd...
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Agricultural Water Management in Arid, Semi-arid and Drought Prone Areas—2nd Edition

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Irrigation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 1314

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shicheng Yan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
Interests: forage crops; fertigation; plant–water relations; irrigation science; grazing management; intercropping; sustainable agricultural; soil health; water use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yongzong Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu Universisty, No. 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, China
Interests: agrometeorological disasters monitoring and control; crop model; agricultural water management; machine learning; precision irrigation and deficit irrigation; agrometeorology and evapotranspiration; drip fertigation regulation; frost protection; water and heat flux modelling and observation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Shengcai Qiang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Urban and Rural Construction, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu District, Jinzhong 030801, China
Interests: dryland cultivation practice; plant water relations; water productivity; ridge-furrow mulching system; water use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Tiebiao Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Automation (MESA) Lab, UC Merced, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Interests: evapotranspiration; irrigation engineering; unmanned aerial vehicles; remote sensing; precision agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water is becoming scarce not only in arid and drought-prone areas, but also in regions where rainfall is abundant. Water scarcity affects the sustainability of agricultural production and food security. These trends raise concerns about the role of irrigation and natural rainfall resources management for the sustainability of agriculture. Therefore, how agriculture adapts to water scarcity scenarios, particularly by increasing water productivity and making predictions about evapotranspiration, will directly affect the future and sustainability of water resource management. Innovative irrigation technologies and practices as well as water conservation patterns may enhance agricultural water use and production and decrease the water demand and quality issues. This Special Issue will focus on water conservation practices, advanced irrigation tools and water technologies, evapotranspiration and modeling, and the best management practices and strategies for efficient water use in agriculture under the conditions of reduced water availability, particularly in arid, semi-arid and drought-prone areas. I am very pleased to invite you to submit your manuscripts to this Special Issue, “Agricultural Water Management in Arid, Semi-arid and Drought Prone Areas—Volume 2”, to assess the current challenges and offer improvement approaches and opportunities for future agricultural water management.

Dr. Shicheng Yan
Dr. Yongzong Lu
Dr. Shengcai Qiang
Dr. Tiebiao Zhao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water-resource management
  • water conservation patterns
  • irrigation methods and tools
  • evapotranspiration
  • observation methods and modelling
  • plant water relations
  • water productivity
  • cover crops

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 13076 KiB  
Article
Gravel Mulching Significantly Improves Crop Yield and Water Productivity in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Northwest China: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis
by Yangyang Wu, Zhenjiang Jia, Wangcheng Li, Susu Gao, Xin Zhang, Xiaoxiao Niu and Yahao Huang
Agronomy 2024, 14(8), 1717; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14081717 - 4 Aug 2024
Viewed by 845
Abstract
In the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China, periodic rainfall deficits, high field evaporation, limited freshwater resources, and high irrigation costs restrict crop yield and water productivity (WP). Gravel mulching (GM), a traditional agricultural tillage management practice widely used in arid and [...] Read more.
In the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China, periodic rainfall deficits, high field evaporation, limited freshwater resources, and high irrigation costs restrict crop yield and water productivity (WP). Gravel mulching (GM), a traditional agricultural tillage management practice widely used in arid and semi-arid regions, improves crop yield and WP. However, the combined impacts of GM on crop yield and WP are unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of GM on crop yield and WP under different factors and to find the most critical regional factors and gravel characteristics that affect crop yield and WP. To quantitatively assess the impact of GM on crop yield and WP, this study performed a meta-analysis, a regression analysis, and a path analysis of 185 yield comparisons and 130 WP comparisons from 30 peer-reviewed scientific reports. This study found that GM significantly increased crop yield and WP by an average of 29.47% and 28.03%, respectively. GM was reported with the highest response percentages (I) of crop yield and WP in regions whose average annual precipitation (AAP) was 200–400 mm, average annual temperature (AAT) was 0–9 °C, and altitude (A) was >1000 m. Overall, AAP, AAT, and A had significant effects on the I of crop yield (p < 0.001), but AAT and A had an insignificant impact on the I of crop WP (p > 0.05). Gravel size (GS), the amount of gravel mulching (AGM), the degree of gravel mulching (DGM), and the gravel mulching thickness (GMT) had a significantly positive impact on crop yield and WP (p < 0.05). The stepwise multiple linear regression analysis results indicated that the primary regional factors influencing yield were AAT and A, contributing 43.14% and 53.09%, respectively. GMT and GS were identified as significant gravel characterization factors impacting yield, contributing 82.63% and 17.37%, respectively. AAP and GMT were the main regional factors and gravel characterization factors affecting WP. Furthermore, the I values for cash crop yield and WP were higher than that for food crops, and moderate fertilization and irrigation would increase the I values of yield and WP. The benefits of GM are strongly correlated with the planting year. This study’s results show that GM generally improves crop yield and WP, although the extent of this impact varies based on different conditions. These findings are not only useful in relation to their direct applicability to other countries worldwide but also due to their potential to provide new ideas for agricultural practices in similar crop-growing environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Water Management in Arid, Semi-arid and Drought Prone Areas—2nd Edition)
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