ENHANCING AGRICULTURAL WATER PRODUCTIVITY OF CROPS AT FIELD SCALE

Abstract

In order to achieve enhanced water management for sustainable agriculture, food security, and healthy functioning of ecosystem, water productivity must be increased. Agricultural water productivity is the agricultural output, in physical or monetary terms, generated per unit of water consumed or applied. Plants take up water primarily from soil. Thus, judicious water management in field starts with real-time assessment of soil moisture content viain-situ or remote sensing-based methods. This chapter reviews opportunities for improving field-scale water productivity by the use of precision agronomic and water management technologies. In field scale, water productivity, or water use efficiency of crops, can be improved by seed priming, maintaining proper rowdirection of crops, following prudent nutrient management practices to harness synergy of water-nutrient interaction, minimizing water application via drip and sprinkler irrigation or optimizing the same via precision irrigation approaches, reducing unproductive water losses through conservation agricultural practices or application of antitranspirants, and increasing the water retention capacity of soils by applying soil conditioners etc. Identifying the most promising combination of options for improving water productivity is complex and largely determined by the economic capacity of the stakeholders