Abstract
Irrigated agriculture plays a fundamental role as a supplier of food and raw materials. However, it is also the world’s largest water user. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of studies analyzing agricultural irrigation from the perspective of sustainability with a focus on its environmental, economic, and social impacts. This study seeks to analyze the dynamics of global research in sustainable irrigation in agriculture between 1999 and 2018, including the main agents promoting it and the topics that have received the most attention. To do this, a review and a bibliometric analysis were carried out on a sample of 713 articles. The results show that sustainability is a line of study that is becoming increasingly more prominent within research in irrigation. The study also reveals the existence of substantial differences and preferred topics in the research undertaken by different countries. The priority issues addressed in the research were climatic change, environmental impact, and natural resources conservation; unconventional water resources; irrigation technology and innovation; and water use efficiency. Finally, the findings indicate a series of areas related to sustainable irrigation in agriculture in which research should be promoted.
Highlights
The current global context is conditioned by the growth of the world’s population and the progressive and continuous deterioration of the environment
This study presented the dynamics of global research in sustainable irrigation in agriculture over the last two decades, the main agents promoting it, and the topics that have received the most attention
The main concerns stated in the Introduction section related to the improvement of irrigation water use in order to increase food production, the world overexploitation of water resources, and the effects of global climate change
Summary
The current global context is conditioned by the growth of the world’s population and the progressive and continuous deterioration of the environment This creates the challenge of ensuring the supply of basic resources, such as food and water, and sustainable development [1], where water plays an essential role in the survival of human society [2] and contributes to the provision of a wide range of services on which the wellbeing of society is based [3,4,5]. Water resources are subject to severe degradation due to many factors, such as the consequences of global climate change, alterations in the use of land, agricultural and urban expansion, and overexploitation due to economic development [6,7,8] In parallel with this degradation and overexploitation of ecosystems and water resources, the demand for the services supplied by these resources is expected to increase. The global area dedicated to irrigated crops is estimated to be 275 million hectares, with an upward growth trend of
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