Abstract
Area under vegetable cultivation is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions of the world to meet the nutritional requirements of an ever-growing population. However, water scarcity in these areas is limiting vegetable productivity. New water-conserving irrigation management practices are being implemented in these areas. Under these irrigation management practices, crops are frequently exposed to some extent of water stress. Vegetables are highly sensitive to water stress. For the successful implementation of new irrigation practices in vegetable crops, it is of immense importance to determine the threshold water deficit level which will not have a detrimental effect on plant growth and yield. Along with this, plant response and adaptation mechanisms to new irrigation practices need to be understood for the successful implementation of new irrigation practices. To understand this, water stress indicators that are highly responsive to water stress; and that can help in early detection of water stress need to be identified for vegetable crops. Plant-based water stress indicators are quite effective in determining the water stress level in plants because they take into account the cumulative effect of water stress due to declining soil moisture status and increased evaporative demand of the atmosphere while determining the water stress level in plant. Water stress quantification using plant-based approaches involves direct measurements of several aspects of plant water status and indirect measurements of plant processes which are highly sensitive to water deficit. In this article, a number of plant-based water stress indicators were critically reviewed for (1) their efficacy to determine the level of water stress, (2) their potential to predict the yield of a crop as affected by different water-deficit levels and (3) their suitability for irrigation scheduling in vegetable crops.
Highlights
Irrigated crop production is important for global food security because it contributes around 40% to the total food supply for the entire world [1]
This article has briefly highlighted the relative efficacy of different plant-based water stress indicators to detect and measure the water stress, their consistency with yield results of a crop as affected by different water-deficit levels, and for their potential to be used in irrigation scheduling in vegetable crops
In most studies mentioned in this review, water stress indicator results were consistent with the yield results
Summary
Irrigated crop production is important for global food security because it contributes around 40% to the total food supply for the entire world [1]. Threshold value of a reliable water stress indicator can be used to determine the threshold level of deficit irrigation for a particular crop species This threshold level of deficit irrigation can be implemented successfully for sustainable crop production without causing significant decrease in plant growth and yield while saving a considerable amount of irrigation water. The area under vegetable cultivation has expanded, in the arid and semi-arid areas where droughts are quite frequent [18] In these areas, water conserving irrigation management practices are being implemented, which lead to development of some degree of water stress in crops. In this study, a number of plant-based approaches have been critically evaluated for their potential to (1) detect and measure the water stress, (2) predict the yield as affected by different water stress conditions and (3) schedule irrigation in vegetables
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