Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement

Water is rapidly becoming scarcer especially in arid and semiarid areas such as Central West Asia and North Africa Region (CWANA), while irrigated agriculture is critical for national and world food security in these regions. Due to huge gaps between crop demands and rainfall, most countries of thes...

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Autores principales: Dehghanisanij, H., Oweis, Theib Y., Qureshi, Asad Sarwar
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/40921
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author Dehghanisanij, H.
Oweis, Theib Y.
Qureshi, Asad Sarwar
author_browse Dehghanisanij, H.
Oweis, Theib Y.
Qureshi, Asad Sarwar
author_facet Dehghanisanij, H.
Oweis, Theib Y.
Qureshi, Asad Sarwar
author_sort Dehghanisanij, H.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Water is rapidly becoming scarcer especially in arid and semiarid areas such as Central West Asia and North Africa Region (CWANA), while irrigated agriculture is critical for national and world food security in these regions. Due to huge gaps between crop demands and rainfall, most countries of these regions cannot have productive form of agriculture without assured irrigation supplies. Continues decrease in the surface water resources has put enormous pressure on groundwater resources and as a results; throughout the regions groundwater tables are declining. Since water is the most limited factor in these regions, improving the productivity of existing water resources is an attractive alternative to sustain irrigated agriculture. There is a strong need to educate farmers to shift their thinking from "maximizing crop yields? to " optimizing crop yields? . The results show that substantial and sustainable improvements in water productivity can be achieved through integrated farm-resources management. On-farm irrigation water management techniques such as deficit irrigation if coupled with better cropping patterns together with appropriate cultural practices, and improved genetic make-up will help to achieve this objective. Conventional water-management and cropping pattern guidelines, designed to maximize yield per unit area, need to be revised for achieving maximum water productivity. The wide ranges in recorded crop water productivities suggest that agricultural production can be maintained to its current level by using 20 to 40% less water if new water management practices are adopted. This paper reviews the current situation of water scarcity, agricultural water productivity, and suggests options for sustainable management of land and water resources in these regions.
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spelling CGSpace409212023-06-12T19:07:56Z Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement Dehghanisanij, H. Oweis, Theib Y. Qureshi, Asad Sarwar water deficit irrigated farming water use efficiency irrigation efficiency water conservation precipitation groundwater evapotranspiration drip irrigation furrow irrigation sprinkler irrigation optimization Water is rapidly becoming scarcer especially in arid and semiarid areas such as Central West Asia and North Africa Region (CWANA), while irrigated agriculture is critical for national and world food security in these regions. Due to huge gaps between crop demands and rainfall, most countries of these regions cannot have productive form of agriculture without assured irrigation supplies. Continues decrease in the surface water resources has put enormous pressure on groundwater resources and as a results; throughout the regions groundwater tables are declining. Since water is the most limited factor in these regions, improving the productivity of existing water resources is an attractive alternative to sustain irrigated agriculture. There is a strong need to educate farmers to shift their thinking from "maximizing crop yields? to " optimizing crop yields? . The results show that substantial and sustainable improvements in water productivity can be achieved through integrated farm-resources management. On-farm irrigation water management techniques such as deficit irrigation if coupled with better cropping patterns together with appropriate cultural practices, and improved genetic make-up will help to achieve this objective. Conventional water-management and cropping pattern guidelines, designed to maximize yield per unit area, need to be revised for achieving maximum water productivity. The wide ranges in recorded crop water productivities suggest that agricultural production can be maintained to its current level by using 20 to 40% less water if new water management practices are adopted. This paper reviews the current situation of water scarcity, agricultural water productivity, and suggests options for sustainable management of land and water resources in these regions. 2006 2014-06-13T14:48:44Z 2014-06-13T14:48:44Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/40921 en Limited Access Dehghanisanij, H.; Oweis, T.; Qureshi, Asad Sarwar. 2006. Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement. Annals of Arid Zone, 45(2):1-24.
spellingShingle water deficit
irrigated farming
water use efficiency
irrigation efficiency
water conservation
precipitation
groundwater
evapotranspiration
drip irrigation
furrow irrigation
sprinkler irrigation
optimization
Dehghanisanij, H.
Oweis, Theib Y.
Qureshi, Asad Sarwar
Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title_full Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title_fullStr Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title_full_unstemmed Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title_short Agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas: Current situation and measures for improvement
title_sort agricultural water use and management in arid and semiarid areas current situation and measures for improvement
topic water deficit
irrigated farming
water use efficiency
irrigation efficiency
water conservation
precipitation
groundwater
evapotranspiration
drip irrigation
furrow irrigation
sprinkler irrigation
optimization
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/40921
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