Abstract
China is the largest worldwide potato producer where around half of the crops is planted in the semi-arid region frequently affected by water restriction. While innovative methods are needed for water-saving irrigation methods, the use of low-cost and environmental-friendly technology must be prioritised. In this study, potato production under drip irrigation (DI, commonly adopted to save water) was compared with partial root-zone drying furrow irrigation (PRD) using the same water volume per irrigation, in both methods. Two initiation timings (early and late) were tested under shelter and field conditions, the water supplied during every irrigation being 50% of the crop water demand calculated for furrow full irrigation (FI, as control). The comparison of both methods was done through the assessment of tuber fresh-yield and estimated economic and environmental (carbon footprint and irrigation water use efficiency, WUEi) benefits. Late PRD and DI produced the highest WUEi without significant yield reduction. PRD produced 3.1% higher net benefit than DI with an estimated CO2 emission of 3659 kg ha−1 CO2 (14% lower than DI). The input-output ratio (total input costs/yield output) for PRD was 0.4, which was 10% lower than DI. The study’s results suggested that PRD, with no less than 50% of the water applied in FI per application, not only maintained yield but could also increase revenues while saving water and reducing CO2 emissions, compared to DI. Such results might help reduce the pressure on the water reserves in semi-arid potato-producing areas in China. Notwithstanding, a scaling-up of PRD technology must be tested in those regions to substantiate the findings of this preliminary study.
Highlights
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the fourth most important food crop after maize, rice and wheat, and is cultivated widely in the world, with China as the largest potato-producing country accounting for 26.3% of global production (FAO 2018)
The results confirmed the hypothesis that partial root-zone drying furrow irrigation (PRD) produced no significant difference in tuber yield and water use efficiency (WUEi) compared to drip irrigation (DI), but in an economically and environmentally friendly manner, under both tested conditions
The results of this study showed that irrigation treatments initiated 2 weeks after tuber initiation onset (TIO) for both DI and PRD, with only 36% of the total water amount applied to furrow irrigation (FI), did not significantly reduce yield, which was in agreement with other studies in potato (Jovanovic et al 2010; Xie et al 2012; Yactayo et al 2017)
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the fourth most important food crop after maize, rice and wheat, and is cultivated widely in the world, with China as the largest potato-producing country accounting for 26.3% of global production (FAO 2018). The aim was to expand potato planting to more than 6.7 million ha by 2020 (CHNMOA 2015). This might exacerbate the current pressure on the use of water resources, since about 50% of potatoes cultivated in this country are grown under irrigation in semi-arid areas (Luo et al 2015). The expansion of potato cultivation in water-scarce environments poses important research challenges
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