Water Usage Efficiency Research Articles

Effects of agricultural activities on energy-carbon-water nexus of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Energy, carbon, water and their interactions determine agricultural production efficiency and sustainability. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), agricultural activities threaten the ecological security of the region, and agriculture itself is susceptible to climate change. In this study, we applied an energy-carbon-water nexus framework to assess the carbon emissions, water utilization, and energy flow, and their links with agricultural production on the QTP, using emergy analysis, footprint analysis (carbon footprint and water footprint) and a coupling model. The results showed that agricultural activities on the QTP released 2.17 × 1010 kgCO2-eq and absorbed 6.00 × 1010 kgCO2-eq, using 3.24 × 1022 sej of emergy and 8.19 × 109 m3 of water in 2018. Meanwhile, the energy-carbon-water nexus of agricultural production on the QTP was imbalanced, and the environmental footprint revealed large spatial heterogeneity at county scale. The coupling interaction among the energy-carbon-water nexus in agricultural production was investigated based on the coupling coordination model. Five categories of coupling interaction were identified by the degree of coordination. The largest emitter was agricultural input, especially electricity and nitrogen fertilizer, accounting for 24% and 7% of the total on average, respectively. With regard to emergy flows, renewable organic resources, accounted for 47%, making them the predominant in emergy inputs. The green water footprint (water from natural rainfall) at 51% was higher than the blue water footprint (water from irrigation) at 49%. More measurements to reduce carbon emission and improve the efficiency of energy usage and water usage are needed, such as optimizing planting patterns and structures, promoting cleaner energy, improving the efficiency of agrochemical use and proposing reasonable spatial planning for regional ecological development. Our findings provide a systematic reference for energy-carbon-water nexus analysis and sustainable agricultural development policy for decision-makers on the QTP.

Enhancing water use efficiency and grain yield of wheat by optimizing irrigation supply in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan

The lack of good irrigation practices and policy reforms in Pakistan triggers major threats to the water and food security of the country. In the future, irrigation will happen under the scarcity of water, as inadequate irrigation water becomes the requirement rather than the exception. The precise application of water with irrigation management is therefore needed. This research evaluated the wheat grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) under limited irrigation practices in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. DSSAT was used to simulate yield and assess alternative irrigation scheduling based on different levels of irrigation starting from the actual irrigation level up to 65% less irrigation. The findings demonstrated that different levels of irrigation had substantial effects on wheat grain yield and total water consumption. After comparing the different irrigation levels, the high amount of actual irrigation level in semi-arid sites decreased the WUE and wheat grain yield. However, the arid site (Site-1) showed the highest wheat grain yield 2394 kg ha−1 and WUE 5.9 kg−3 on actual irrigation (T1), and with the reduction of water, wheat grain yield decreased continuously. The optimal irrigation level was attained on semi-arid (site-2) with 50% (T11) less water where the wheat grain yield and WUE were 1925 kg ha−1 and 4.47 kg−3 respectively. The best irrigation level was acquired with 40% less water (T9) on semi-arid (site-3), where wheat grain yield and WUE were 1925 kg ha−1 and 4.57 kg−3, respectively. The results demonstrated that reducing the irrigation levels could promote the growth of wheat, resulting in an improved WUE. In crux, significant potential for further improving the efficiency of agricultural water usage in the region relies on effective soil moisture management and efficient use of water.

Insight into the cellular and physiological regulatory modulations of Class-I TCP9 to enhance drought and salinity stress tolerance in cowpea.

The Teosinte branched 1/Cycloidea/Proliferating cell factor (TCP) transcription factors are potent growth and developmental regulators in plants, also responsive to various hormonal and environmental stimuli. In this study, we primarily focused on the functional role of TCP9, a nuclear-localised Class-I TCP transcription factor in a drought and heat-tolerant legume crop, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Under drought stress, a higher protein expression level of TCP9 was observed in the leaves of the drought-tolerant cowpea cultivar Pusa Komal as compared to the drought-sensitive cultivar TVu-7778. Further, overexpression of VuTCP9 resulted in reduced cell and stomata size, aperture length and width while cell and overall stomatal density in the 35S::VuTCP9 transgenic cowpea lines increased. Phenotypic alterations, such as reduced leaf size and vigour, altered seed coats displaying extension pattern similar to the 'Watson pattern' and delayed senescence were prominent in the transgenic lines. Under normal conditions, the gas exchange and fluorescence measurements indicated reduction in transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (gs ) and photosynthetic efficiency (Φ PSII). However, water usage efficiency (WUE) remained unaltered in the transgenic lines as compared to the wild-type (WT) plants. Furthermore, the transgenic lines displayed higher tolerance to oxidative, drought and salinity stress, maintained relatively higher relative water content and lower occurrence of H2 O2 , as compared to the WT plants. Genes related to the jasmonic acid biosynthesis, stomatal development and abiotic stress responsiveness, such as TTG1, NAC25, SPCH and GRP1, increased and LOX2 decreased significantly in the transgenic lines.

The effect of organic farming on water reusability, sustainable ecosystem, and food toxicity.

Water is a fundamental necessity for people's well-being and the ecosystem's sustainability; however, its toxicity due to agrochemicals usage for food production leads to the deterioration of water quality. The poor water quality diminishes its reusability, thus limiting efficient water usage. Organic farming is one of the best ways that does not only reduce the deterioration of water quality but also decrease food toxicity. In organic farming, the crop is grown with no/less chemical usage. Besides, organic farming maintains biodiversity and reduces the anthropogenic footprint on soil, air, water, wildlife, and especially on the farming communities. Fields that are organically managed continuously for years have fewer pest populations and were attributed to increased biodiversity and abundance of multi-trophic interactions as well as to changes in plant metabolites. Fewer insect pests (pathogen vectors), in turn, would result in fewer crop diseases and increase crop production. This review highlights that organic farming may play a critical role in the reduction of pests and pathogens, which eventually would reduce the need for chemical reagents to protect crops, improving yield quality and water reusability.

THE RATIONALE FOR ADOPTION OF THE CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE SYSTEM TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION IN ANBAR GOVERNORATE IN IRAQ

Iraq faces major environmental challenges because of its geographical location in the arid and semi aired areas that of desertification sensitivity and the global climate changes, especially in its central and southern parts as in the Al Anbar governorate. According to the UN reports, %92 of Iraq's area is in one way or another exposed to desertification as represented by dust storms, dune movement, deterioration of natural vegetationو droughts, and waterlogging and salinization of the soil. The desertification areas in Al Anbar estimates by %77 of the total area of 137,808 km2 of the governorate. Global attention in combating desertification has involved the implementation of preventive measures to halt and reduce desertification. The most effective way to combat desertification has been found through the introduction of agricultural systems that ensure the conservation of agricultural, natural resources (soil and water) and goes in line with the emerging environmental changes. This article presents the justifications for proposing a conservative agriculture system as an ideal solution to combat desertification in the Al Anbar governorate. The results of the research on the applications of conservation agriculture indicate that the conservation agriculture application leads to reduce soil erosion, mitigate droughts and scarcity of water resources, increase water usage efficiency, and increase productivity and economic return. These findings urge investing in the advantages of the conservation agriculture system to combat the desertification phenomena in the Al Anbar governorate. What should be emphasized in this context, however, is the need to double efforts and provide official support from the relevant authorities.

Innovative Irrigation Using Humidity and Soil Moisture for Efficient Usage of Water in Agriculture Field Compared to Drip Irrigation

Aim: The storage of clean water assets around the world has produced a requirement for their ideal use. Innovative irrigation is the advance method which can overcome the drawbacks of traditional drip irrigation. Materials: In this proposed system two soils, sandy soil with average moisture content 60% and clay soil with average moisture content 76% are taken; A total of 20 samples are taken from 2 groups. The sample size was estimated to be 5 in each group using Gpower with the input soil samples with alpha error of 0.95, threshold value of 0.05, confidence level of 95%, pretest G- power is 80%. Significance of this proposed system is 0.05. Result: Comparing the two soils, the soil which can maintain a low percentage of moisture content appears to be suitable for the irrigation. Minimum percentage of moisture can be achieved by using the smart irrigation system which appear to be better than the traditional drip irrigation. The moisture content in sandy soil is 83% and the clay soil is 63%. Since moisture content is inversely proportional to water content. Conclusion: Clay soil appears to be better than sandy soil, traditional issues in drip irrigation is overcomed by innovative irrigation system.

IoT-IIRS: Internet of Things based intelligent-irrigation recommendation system using machine learning approach for efficient water usage

In the traditional irrigation process, a huge amount of water consumption is required which leads to water wastage. To reduce the wasting of water for this tedious task, an intelligent irrigation system is urgently needed. The era of machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) brings it is a great advantage of building an intelligent system that performs this task automatically with minimal human effort. In this study, an IoT enabled ML-trained recommendation system is proposed for efficient water usage with the nominal intervention of farmers. IoT devices are deployed in the crop field to precisely collect the ground and environmental details. The gathered data are forwarded and stored in a cloud-based server, which applies ML approaches to analyze data and suggest irrigation to the farmer. To make the system robust and adaptive, an inbuilt feedback mechanism is added to this recommendation system. The experimentation, reveals that the proposed system performs quite well on our own collected dataset and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Raipur crop dataset.

A Hidden Markov Model and Fuzzy Logic Forecasting Approach for Solar Geyser Water Heating

Time-based smart home controllers govern their environment with a predefined routine, without knowing if this is the most efficient way. Finding a suitable model to predict energy consumption could prove to be an optimal method to manage the electricity usage. The work presented in this paper outlines the development of a prediction model that controls electricity consumption in a home, adapting to external environmental conditions and occupation. A backup geyser element in a solar geyser solution is identified as a metric for more efficient control than a time-based controller. The system is able to record multiple remote sensor readings from Internet of Things devices, built and based on an ESP8266 microcontroller, to a central SQL database that includes the hot water usage and heating patterns. Official weather predictions replace physical sensors, to provide the data for the environmental conditions. Fuzzification categorises the warm water usage from the multiple sensor recordings into four linguistic terms (None, Low, Medium and High). Partitioning clustering determines the relationship patterns between weather predictions and solar heating efficiency. Next, a hidden Markov model predicts solar heating efficiency, with the Viterbi algorithm calculating the geyser heating predictions, and the Baum–Welch algorithm for training the system. Warm water usage and solar heating efficiency predictions are used to calculate the optimal time periods to heat the water through electrical energy. Simulations with historical data are used for the evaluation and validation of the approach, by comparing the algorithm efficiency against time-based heating. In a simulation, the intelligent controller is 19.9% more efficient than a time-based controller, with higher warm water temperatures during the day. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that a controller, with knowledge of external conditions, can be switched on 728 times less than a time-based controller.

Sustainability evaluation of service supply chains: a case study of an Indian hospital

PurposeIncreasing pressure from the stakeholders makes the inclusion and evaluation of sustainable practices in the service supply chain (SSC) inevitable. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the sustainability status of a case organization and discover the barrier to sustainability in the SSC.Design/methodology/approachFrom the literature review, five sustainability dimensions, seventeen attributes and sixty-five subattributes of the SSC are identified. A three-level conceptual model drawn on human perception is developed. The overall sustainability status of the SSC is determined by using the multigrade fuzzy logic approach. The fuzzy concept incorporated helps in overcoming the challenges of vagueness and impreciseness in the responses. The case SSC is a WestIndia–based hospital.FindingsThe study evaluates the case hospital to be “very sustainable” but far from the “extremely sustainable” level. Six barriers are identified which are reduction in solid waste, compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations, water usage efficiency, training and education of employees, return on investment and safety equipment for employees. These barriers hinder the hospital from achieving an “extremely sustainable” level.Practical implicationsThis paper evaluates, helps the management in identifying the barriers and thus enabling them to work upon these barriers and achieve a greater level of sustainability.Originality/valueThe sustainability practices adopted in this paper for the evaluation of the sustainability status of the SSC have not been used in previous studies. In this study apart from environmental, social and economic aspects, customer management and health, safety and risk management are also incorporated for evaluating the performance of the SSC which makes this study unique. The proposed model can be taken as a benchmark for evaluating the sustainability performance of any SSC.

Aquaporins Responses under Challenging Environmental Conditions and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Aquaporins are important transmembrane channel proteins required for the transport of water and nutrients to maintain plant water relations and its survival. The aquaporins have a characteristic structure and are divided into 5 distinct isoforms such as plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIP), tonoplast intrinsic protein (TIP), small basic intrinsic protein (SIP), nodulin-26 like intrinsic protein (NIP) and X intrinsic proteins (XIP). Aquaporins conducts transcellular movement of water molecules across the cell and organelles membranes. Apart from playing key role in maintaining water level inside the plant system it is also involved in transporting small neutral molecules including glycerol, urea, metalloids, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. In this way it regulates ionic homeostasis and water levels during environmental stresses including drought, chilling, salinity, and heavy metal toxicity and helps in providing tolerance toward the stress. It also plays a key role in maintaining the carbon and nitrogen level in the cell, transporting the key regulatory molecules and phytohormones mediated tolerance to plants. Scientist has also targeted aquaporins in order to develop stress tolerant transgenic species having improved functioning of aquaporins. Increase of water retention capability and usage efficiency by the plants represents the major research areas to confer abiotic stress tolerance. This review presents a comprehensive studies and intensive ongoing research to understand the diverse role of aquaporins in ensuring normal growth and development of plants. Current aspects of aquaporins and its isoforms in relation to its structure, function and regulation in different plant species have been highlighted. Further the potential of aquaporins in promoting plant survival during wide ranges of environmental situations is also emphasized.

Design and Development of Microcontroller Based Agroponic Agriculture System

Currently, the traditional agriculture is being transformed into smart agriculture using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. An agriculture service platform is being developed to help with environmental monitoring and to improve agricultural management. Various climate condition parameters are vital to be monitored for agriculture for ensuring optimal growth conditions. The crop production regulation, and climate change has negative impact on agriculture and food production due to excess rainfall, temperature changes, and other associated environmental variations. Different type of plants has its own need of fertilization and water where poor management of water and fertilization will lead to unhealthy crops and shorten their lifespan. The goal of this study is to design and develop a plant management system based on sensors and microcontroller. The input of the system includes pH, temperature, and soil moisture alongside real-time clock module. The system uses LoRa for data transmission that will allow the data to be transmitted up to 1 km distance. The system will optimize the plant watering leading to more efficient water usage. Moreover, this system will have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that will allow user to provide plant watering schedule for the user. This system has been successfully tested based on several experiments. This system can be used for both indoor and outdoor plants

Virtual Water Trade as a creative water-saving technique

Understanding the idea and strategy of virtual water trade is critical for formulating informed policies to increase water usage efficiency at various levels. The implementation of the concept of virtual water as a creative water-saving technique in Egypt, however, is still in need of comprehensive testing, research, and feasibility evaluation. Egypt also requires extensive investigations, surveys, and feasibility evaluations. At present, as a percentage of water supplies, Egypt's net virtual water import has risen to 23.55 percent. The primary concern here is to apply virtual water as a strategy that meets the interests and goals set out in Egypt's National Water Management Plan. The key concern of this paper is investigating the general use of virtual water as a water-saving technique in Egypt. It outlines the water scarcity problem and its indicators, supply and demand for water resources in Egypt, and water scarcity forces in Egypt. Going to virtual water in economic ideas history, the definitions of virtual water and water footprint, then virtual water as an analytical instrument and a political strategy. Finally, water saving from virtual water trade and its advantages and disadvantages in Egypt. In order to follow the introduction of the virtual water definition in the national water management policy of Egypt, A clear vision and understanding of its advantages and disadvantages according to the conditions of Egypt is required. Further analysis and a thorough understanding of the impacts and experiences on the local social, economic, environmental, cultural, natural and political situation is needed for this new definition as a policy choice in Egypt.

A Model to Assess Eastern Cottonwood Water Flow Using Adjusted Vapor Pressure Deficit Associated with a Climate Change Impact Application

Short-rotation woody crops have maintained global prominence as biomass feedstocks for bioenergy, in part due to their fast growth and coppicing ability. However, the water usage efficiency of some woody biomass crops suggests potential adverse hydrological impacts. Monitoring tree water use in large-scale plantations would be very time-consuming and cost-prohibitive because it would typically require the installation and maintenance of sap flux sensors and dataloggers or other instruments. We developed a model to estimate the sap flux of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides. Bartr. ex Marsh.)) grown in bioenergy plantations. This model is based on adjusted vapor pressure deficit (VPD) using Structural Thinking and Experiential Learning Laboratory with Animation (STELLA) software (Architect Version 1.8.2), and is validated using the sap flux data collected from a 4-year-old eastern cottonwood biomass production plantation. With R2 values greater than 0.79 and Nash Sutcliffe coefficients greater than 0.69 and p values < 0.001, a strong agreement was obtained between measured and predicted diurnal sap flux patterns and annual sap flux cycles. We further validated the model using eastern cottonwood sap flux data from Aiken, South Carolina, USA with a good agreement between method predictions and field measurements. The model was able to predict a typical diurnal pattern, with sap flux density increasing during the day and decreasing at night for a 5-year-old cottonwood plantation. We found that a 10% increase in VPD due to climate change increased the sap flux of eastern cottonwood by about 5%. Our model also forecasted annual sap flux characteristics of measured cycles that increased in the spring, reached a maximum in the summer, and decreased in the fall. The model developed here can be adapted to estimate sap flux of other trees species in a time- and cost-effective manner.

A Study on Sensor Based Irrigation and Nitrogen Management in Maize Zea Mays L

Maize is widely called as the "Queen of Cereals” owing to its great producing capacity among the cereal crop. The ever-increasing demand combined with the ever-increasing expenses of water and energy has made it imperative to create new technologies for the appropriately managing of water resources. The conventional method of farming is no longer viable because of the increasing shortage of water; as a result, it is no longer possible to satisfy the needs of ever-increasing populations. During the Kharif-2019 growing season, the field experiment entitled "Sensor and SMI based irrigation management in Maize [Zea mays (L.)] to enhance growth, yield, and water use efficiency" was carried out at the 'L' Block, ZARS, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore 560065. The experiment included seven different treatments: T1 was surface irrigation, T2 was drip irrigation at three-day intervals, T3 was green soil moisture indicator (GSMI) based drip irrigation, T4 was yellow soil moisture indicator based drip irrigation (YSMI), T5 was sensor based drip irrigation at 25% depletion of available soil moisture (DASM), T6 was sensor based drip irrigation at 50% DASM, and T7 was sensor based drip irrigation at 75% DASM. These were arranged in RCBD, and three copies were made of them. According to the findings, sensor-based drip irrigation with a concentration of 25% DASM resulted in considerably better growth metrics, kernel yield, and Stover yield. However, GSMI-based drip irrigation reported a yield that was on par with that of conventional irrigation. Additionally, greater water usage efficiency was obtained with the same treatment. In contrast, surface irrigation resulted in a grain yield of 6551 kilogrammes per hectare, a stover yield of 8007 kilogrammes per hectare, and a water usage efficiency of 131.8 kilogrammes per cubic metre per hectare.

Physiological and Proteomic Analysis of Brassica napus in Response to Salt Stress

Salinity is a major abiotic stress that adversely affects plant growth and development. Canola (Brassica napus L.) is an important oilseed crop in the world, and its yield decreases drastically with increasing salinity. To date, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying its salt stress response and tolerance. This study combines physiological assays with comparative proteomics to understand how B. napus plants respond to salt stress. The changes in relative water content, electrical conductance, stomata conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, transpiration rate, photosynthesis rate, water usage efficiency, respiration rate, chlorophyll fluorescence, antioxidant enzyme activities, soluble sugar, proline and betaine in B. napus plants under different NaCl concentrations were analyzed. Proteomic profiles of B. napus plants under 100, 200 and 400 mM NaCl treatment at 7 day and 14 day were acquired using iTRAQ LC-MS/MS based quantitative proteomics. A total of 2316 proteins were identified in B. napus leaves, of which 614 proteins showed differential expression under salt stress. These proteins were mainly involved in 10 processes, of which proteins in stress and defense, metabolism and photosynthesis pathways ranked the top three. Subcellular localization analysis showed that most proteins were located in chloroplast, cytoplasm, mitochondria and nucleus. A total of 138 differentially expressed proteins were predicted to interact with each other. These results have provided a comprehensive view of the physiological and molecular processes taken place in B. napus leaves under salt stress, and revealed the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance of B. napus plants.

Effect of wick application of growick irrigation system on the cultivation of pakcoy in sand tailing media from post-tin mining land

A large part of post-tin mining land covered by sand tailing which has low water storage capacity, making it vulnerable to drought stress. The innovation of irrigation technology has been developed to overcome this problem such as capillary irrigation system combined with groasis system using a large reservoir with hydroponic wick system called the growick system. This study aimed to determine the best number and type of wick in growick irrigation system to water consumption and also growth and yield of pakcoy cultivated in sand tailing media. The research was conducted from February to June 2020 at Experimental field of Universitas Bangka Belitung, Indonesia. Treatments consisted of the types of wick (flannel and stove wick) and numbers of wick per polybag (1, 2, 3, and 4 wicks). The study used a completely randomized factorial design with 3 replications. Data obtained were analyzed using Analysis of Variance continued with Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 95% significant level. The result showed that usage of flannel wick gave the highest results of growth and yield of pakcoy but it absorbed more water than stove wick. Flannel wick also had lower water usage efficiency than stove wick. The use of single wick gave the highest result of growth and yield of pakcoy than using more wicks. Results of the study showed that single wick treatment gave the highest growth and yield of pakcoy. Flannel wick gave the highest growth and yield of pakcoy, but it was not significantly different from stove wick. Single flannel wick treatment showed no significant difference with single stove wick treatment in growth and yield of pakcoy except for water usage volume parameter. Flannel wick absorbed more water than stove wick, so it has lower water usage efficiency than stove wick. Application growick system using 1 stove wick was the best treatment for cultivating pakcoy in sand tailing media from post-tin mining land.

Up-scaling Water Saving Technologies in Rice Cultivation under Corporate Social Responsibility

Rice crop being the major consumer of water, the water use efficiency of growing rice crop is low compared to other field crops. The promising technologies on water saving in rice were advocated to the farmers on corporate social responsibility basis by upscale and popularization of these techniques among poor land holding farmers in rice growing locations of Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu State in India. The main objective of the study was to bring awareness among farmers on water saving technologies in rice production, thereby increasing water usage efficiency and enhanced grain yield. Field demonstrations were carried out in 25 locations each separately in Villupuram district for up scaling water saving technology in rice cultivation like System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation (AWDI). SRI compared with conventional transplanted rice (CTR) and AWDI with flood irrigation as farmers' practice. The bio-metric observation data was recorded in the demonstration field plots. The average mean data was computed and used for analysis. SRI has showed higher yield attributes viz., Productive tillers (19) and 174 number of grains/panicle over CTR, besides enhanced water productivity of 0.63 kg/m by minimizing the no. of irrigation to 19 and quantum of 3 water requirement (9800 m /ha). Increase in the grain yields up to 19.44 percent over 3 CTR obtained with water saving made the farmers confident on the water saving technologies. Among the irrigation methods <em>viz., </em>flood irrigation and AWDI, 9.4 percent yield increase with 30.4 percent water saving as recorded under AWDI method of irrigation management in lowland rice cultivation. Popularization of water saving technologies in rice cultivation has created greater awareness on water quantification and need based water management among the farmers in the project area.

Effect of Drip Irrigation Subsidies on Maize for Silage Production: Case of Edirne Province

Bu çalışmanın amacı Edirne ilinde damla sulama desteği programının silajlık mısır üretimi üzerine etkileri belirlemek ve destekten yararlanan ve yararlanmayan işletmelerde silajlık mısırın ekonomik ve verimlilik analizini yapmak ve teknik etkinliklerini tespit etmektir. 2012 ve 2017 yılları arasında destek alan 22 silajlık mısır üreticisinin tamamıyla anket çalışması yapılmış olup, aynı sayıda ve benzer özellikte destek almayan üretici ile de anket çalışması yapılmıştır. Silajlık mısır üretimine ilişkin üretim masrafları, brüt ve net kârlar ortaya konulmuştur. Etkinlik analizinde veri zarflama yöntemi, etki analizinde eğilim skoru eşleştirme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Üretim masrafları toplamı destek alan işletmelerde 1538.20 TL da-1, destek almayan işletmelerde 1597.09 TL da-1 olarak belirlenmiştir. Brüt kâr destek alan ve almayan işletmelerde sırasıyla 865.03 TL da-1 ve 483.18 TL da-1 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Destek alan işletmelerde toplam teknik etkinlik 0.894, saf teknik etkinlik 0.958 olarak bulunmuştur. Destek almayan işletmelerde ise toplam teknik etkinlik 0.846, saf teknik etkinlik ise 0.913 olarak bulunmuştur. Ekonomik analiz sonuçlarına göre, destek alan işletmelerde silajlık mısır yetiştiriciliğinin daha kârlı olduğu görülmektedir. Etkinlik analizi sonuçlarına göre ise, destek alan işletmelerin destek almayan işletmelere göre daha etkin çalıştıkları sonucuna varılmıştır. Girdi kullanımı her iki işletme grubunda da hemen hemen aynı ve satış fiyatı aynı olmasına rağmen, etkinlik ve kârlılık farkı verimden ve destek alan üreticilerin etkin su kullanımından kaynaklanmaktadır.

Simultaneous Optimization of Water Usage Efficiency and Yield of Cucumber Planted in a Columnar Aeroponic System

The development of aeroponic cultivation technology has led to more efficient use of water and plant nutrients for producing high quality agricultural commodities. In this research, cucumbers were grown in columnar aeroponic systems for nine weeks and the effect of spraying rate and spraying duration on the cucumber average yield and water usage efficiency were investigated. The experiments were performed using factorial experiment based on completely randomized designs. The spraying rate had three levels of 125, 250 and 375 mL/min, and the spraying durations were 10, 15 and 20 min. During the experiment, the spraying pumps were turned off for 15 min between each spraying time. Then, the two factors were simultaneously optimized using response surface methodology to maximize fruit yield and water usage efficiency. The ANOVA results showed that both responses were significantly affected by the main effects of the factors (α = 0.01) and by their interaction effects (α = 0.05). The comparison of first and second-order models to show the average yield and water usage efficiency as functions of sparing rate and sparing time indicated that the second-order models fitted with higher accuracies (R2> 80%) to the experimental data than the first-order model. Simultaneous optimization showed that the most suitable spraying rate was 233.37 mL/min and for the spraying duration, it was 16.06 min. At the optimum conditions, the average yield per plant yield was 2.96 kg and the water usage efficiency was 110.37 kg/m3.

Zero tillage and water productivity: A review

Nevertheless, zero tillage is the best choice because crop residues retained in zero tillage decreases evaporation, controls soil temperature, reduces erosion, reduces total cultivation costs, increases soil organic carbon stock, enhances water use efficiency and increases crop yield on sustainable crops. A range of resource management technologies are advocated to increase water productivity. In all agro-climatic conditions, the conservation of soil moisture is a crucial priority for improving soil and water productivity. Conserved soil moisture helps minimise water inputs without impacting grain yields, which further increases the output of water and crops. The best choice for efficient water usage and sustainable output could be zero tillage after maintaining sufficient residue load and with proper control of weeds. Keeping all of these under consideration, an attempt was made to come up with an efficient sustainable solution that could be used to implement the zero tillage successfully.