Water Use For Agricultural Production Research Articles

Growth performance of durian based on crop water requirement (ETc) using irrigation system

Water use for agricultural production in water scarcity regions requires precise irrigation water for sustainable irrigation management. The correct amount of irrigation water should be applied to ensure the survival of plants. Currently, farmers apply irrigation without considering the actual amount of the crop water requirement (ETc), which may lead to over or under-irrigation. These problems may cause water logging, crop stress, reduced yield and inefficient farm management. Durian (Durio zibethinus) is an important economic crop of Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Lately, durian plantation has been increasing in Malaysia with innovative and sustainable approaches through irrigation or fertigation. The growth of durian is highly affected by water and nutrients given to the plants. This paper highlights the effect of precise irrigation through durian water requirement. Hence, this study aims to compare the difference in growth performance between existing practices (irrigation without ETc) and irrigation based on ETc. The study was conducted in the durian plantation at Sri Lalang, Kluang, Johor. There were two treatments tested on the durian, which are treatment 1 (T1) existing practice (irrigation without ETc) and treatment 2 (T2), irrigation based on ETc. The experimental design for this experiment is a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four (4) blocks, and four trees for each treatment per block. The data collection includes the height of the tree, canopy width, girth’s diameter, node distance, leaf length and leaf weight. These data were analysed using ANOVA and LSD. Data was collected from April until November 2020. There was a significant difference in node distance from April until September. However, there were no significant differences for other growth parameters, suggesting precise crop water requirement can save water and minimize cost for the whole irrigation management.

Evapotranspiration estimates of soybean using surface renewal: Comparison with crop coefficient approach

Evapotranspiration (ET) is widely considered the main consumptive water use in agricultural production and its accurate determination enables crop producers to make informed decisions. Field experiments were conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to estimate soybean ET from sensible and latent heat flux obtained using the surface renewal (SR) method. Two versions of the SR method (SR2) were used. One version combines SR analysis with Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), hereinafter referred to as SRMOST. The other is a combination of SR analysis and dissipation theory (DT) referred to as SRDT. The ET estimated using SRMOST and SRDT (ETSRMOST and ETSRDT respectively) were compared to the ET obtained using the standard crop coefficient (Kc) approach (ETKc). During flowering, pod formation and seed filling, both SRMOST and SRDT methods slightly overestimated ET obtained using Kc approach with an average normalised root mean square error (NRMSE) of 23.4% and an average normalised mean absolute error (NMAE) of 10.1% for SRMOST and 21.7 and 9.4% for SRDT respectively. During senescence and at maturity, SRMOST and SRDT slightly underestimated ET compared to Kc approach. The average statistical measures for SRMOST were NRMSE = 21.0% and NMAE = 9.2%. Correspondingly, the statistics for SRDT were 17.5 and 7.1% respectively. Both SR2 methods estimated the minimum ET more accurately compared to the maximum. The SRDT method was more in agreement with Kc approach. Surface renewal is robust, less expensive than other micrometeorological techniques and a reliable method for deriving evapotranspiration of soybean when crop coefficients are problematic.

Evaluation of Sustainable Water Resource Use in the Tarim River Basin Based on Water Footprint

Quantifying water use for agricultural production and accurate evaluation is important for achieving a balance between water supply and demand and sustainable use, especially in arid regions. This study quantifies the water footprint of food production in the Tarim River Basin (TRB) from 2000 to 2019 by conducting a sustainability evaluation using both the water footprint and DPSIR model as a theoretical framework, and by analyzing spatial and temporal changes. The results show that the water footprint of the TRB increased from 2.15 m3/kg to 2.86 m3/kg per unit during the study period. The average annual weighted water footprint of the basin is 2.59 m3/kg, of which 2.41 m3/kg is blue water and 0.18 m3/kg is green water. Blue water inputs contribute more than 94% to food production annually. Furthermore, although the level of sustainable water use increased, its score is low, with the most prominent stress assessment value indicating poor regional water use. Prior to 2010, the Tarim River Basin region’s sustainability was less than 0.4, indicating that water resources were at or below the level of basic unsustainability. By 2019, however, the sustainability of areas with better water use was greater than 0.4., and the sustainability of 80% of the region was above 0.2. In the future, we need to reduce the crop water footprint and improve water use efficiency to ensure the sustainable use of water resources and avoid further pressure on water use.

Automatsko upravljanje sistemima za navodnjavanje

Autonomous irrigation systems have been developed to optimize water use in agricultural production and reduce human labor consumption. These systems should be able to be remotely controlled and managed any times by the farmer. The use of sensors and remote reading capabilities are needed to collect real-time data on crop condition, development phase and other parameters related to weather, crops and soil to support intelligent and efficient irrigation management systems. The sensors communicate remotely with the central control unit and the main control unit, which processes a large number of input parameters, and using complex algorithms generates an output control function: when, where and how much to irrigate. The operator must also be able to access and operate the irrigation machine in real time from anywhere and ani time. Remote wireless communication can take place in several ways: Wi-Fi, radio and GSM/GPRS. The choice of communication system depends on the topography and costs. Further development of wireless sensor applications in agriculture is needed to increase the efficiency, productivity and profitability of each agricultural operation, and thus agricultural production as a whole.

Financial Analysis of Water Management Practices in Cranberry Production in Quebec, Canada

At a global scale, Canada is the second largest cranberry producer, with Quebec being the largest producing region within Canada. Efficient water use in agricultural production has long been a topic of outmost importance to agricultural producers, and governing bodies. The immediacy of climate change effects sped up the need to find solutions that conserve water. One such promising technology is irrigation using real-time tensiometers, which provides rapidly critical irrigation needs information to producers. Adoption of improved technologies by farmers is dependent on the effect it has on the farms’ bottom line. In this study, we examine the financial performance of real-time tensiometer based irrigation, and compare it to evaporation needs based irrigation (baseline), in the context of a Quebec-based cranberry farm. Our findings show that irrigating using real-time tensiometers technology generated higher economic returns. With a net present value of $96,847, this technology increased returns by nearly 53% compared to the baseline technology. Subsequent sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings, even when changing important farming parameters.

IMPROVING SOIL PROPERTIES BY USING BIOCHAR UNDER DRAINAGE CONDITIONS IN NORTH SINAI

Increasing the water-holding capacity of sandy soils will help improve efficiency of water use in agricultural production and may be critical for providing enough energy and food for an increasing global population. We hypothesized that addition of Biochar will increase the water-holding capacity of a sandy soil and decrease drainage of sandy soil. Biochar used from local plant residuals; olive wastes including olive pomace (OP) and olive trees wood chops (WC) slow pyrolysis had undertaken on 4oooc for (OP) and 350oc for (WC). Biochar was mixed with soil (0%, 0.2%,0.4% and 0.8% w/w) and placed into columns. Biochar amended columns had a significant average increase of 44.4% and 70.4% in gravity drained water content, relative to the controls for WC350 and OP400.Columns receiving the 0.8 % Biochar treatment lost significantly less water to drainage to the other treatments. There were significantly differences in evaporation and drainage between 0.2 and 0.4% addition of WC350 and OP400, respectively. On the other hand, values of drainage observed in the 0.4 and 0.8 % of both Biochars were significantly less than the values of drainage for the 0.2% addition rates. Bulk density of the control columns increased significantly during the incubation from 1.42 to 1.47 g cm-3 for incubation day 0 and 36, respectively. On incubation day 36, we observed significant lower bulk densities of 8.82, 10.6, 3.11, 85.1, 5.45, and 8.56% for OP400-0.2%, OP400-0.4%, OP400-0.8%, WC350-0.2%, WC350-0.4%, and WC350-0.8% treatments, respectively, relative to controls. The results suggest that Biochar added to sandy soil increases water-holding capacity, decrease drainage of sandy soil and might increase water available for crop use.

Environmental impact assessment of water-saving irrigation systems across 60 irrigation construction projects in northern China

With increasing water shortages partly due to increasing demands, water has become a globally relevant issue especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Water-saving irrigation technologies provide new ways for improving the efficiency of water use for agricultural production. Although efficient irrigation management could lead to water savings and increased yields, the water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during the construction of irrigation projects also puts pressure on environmental health. However, little research has considered the environmental impact of the construction process and materials. To fill this gap, the water footprint (WF) and carbon footprint (CF) of irrigation projects were calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. The results for sixty typical irrigation projects in northern China showed that the WF accounted for only 0.2–1.5% of the total agricultural WF and 2.3–8.8% of the water saved. When the WF to construct modern irrigation systems is not considered, the water-saving effects of these systems are generally overestimated by 13%. The CF for irrigation projects was 42.0% of all agricultural activities. Due to the difficulty to obtain detailed information for irrigation projects, this paper established the relationship between financial investment or area and CF for three kinds of irrigation projects. It provided a simple quantitative method for assessing its environmental impacts. By comparing environmental impacts and production benefits under different scenarios, using drip irrigation over the long-term could increase crop yield and reduce water footprint, but carbon footprint was increased at the same time. This study suggests that it is necessary to assess the environmental impacts of irrigation construction projects from a life cycle perspective rather focusing only on yield increases and reductions in irrigation amounts.

Assessment of global drought propensity and its impacts on agricultural water use in future climate scenarios

Drought is the most widespread and most influential natural disaster in the world, especially a threat to agricultural production. In future climate scenarios, the meteorological elements such as precipitation and temperature in each region will change, which will affect the distribution and characteristics of global drought in the future. In this paper, the global drought propensity was evaluated by reformulated Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI-PM) based on Penman-Monteith equation in three future climate scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) of 9 General Circulation Models (GCMs). Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis were used to assess the spatial-temporal distribution and evolution characteristics of the future global drought. Taking reference evapotranspiration (ET0) of crops as the index, potential effects of global drought on agricultural water use were assessed. The results showed that under the influence of the changes of future temperature, precipitation and other meteorological factors, the global drought has presented regional difference characteristics. In three climate scenarios, the trend of severe drought was detected in Africa, North America, South America and Oceania in three climate scenarios. Spatial distribution of SPEI is consistent and intensified drought was detected in southern, northern and northeast of Africa in three decades in all scenarios. EOF analysis showed that there were more positive time coefficients in RCP8.5 scenario than other scenarios, then parts of South America and Africa would face intensified drought in all climate scenarios. The evolution of future global drought would pose a threat on global water use for agricultural production. The annual average ET0 of three decades in major grain producing countries would be on the rise compared to the baseline (1976–2005), among which RCP8.5 scenario was most obvious. Large increase rate of ET0 would occur in Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and Canada in the 2080s in three scenarios. In the future, major grain producing countries would face serious threats of drought, which would pose a great challenge to regional agricultural water use. The study will provide forward-looking information to alleviate the adverse effects of drought on agricultural water use.

Assessing China’s agricultural water use efficiency in a green-blue water perspective: A study based on data envelopment analysis

Uneven water resources and growing food demand due to an increasing population bring challenges to China. One important mechanism to address these challenges is to enhance water use efficiency (WUE). This requires information on current efficiencies in water use for agricultural production. In this study, we provide a benchmarking tool to assess relative agricultural WUE in 31 provinces in China during 2003-2013. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used with both green-blue water and blue-only scenarios. Results show that China’s agricultural WUE has improved evidently after 2008. Overall technical efficiency (TE) and the pure technical efficiency (PTE) in China based on the green-blue scenario are relatively high, with the average potential increase less than 10% (8% and 4%, respectively). However, there is a larger potential for blue water use efficiency (14% and 7% respectively). The PTE in Northern China (NC) is higher than that in Southern China (SC) while the TE in NC is lower under green-blue scenario. Moreover, the TE and PTE in NC are lower than that in SC under blue-only scenario. These results indicate that green water management techniques in NC are superior to SC but the scale efficiency (SE) in NC is lower. There are four provinces where the efficiency values are on the frontier in four cases, i.e. two scenarios (green-blue and blue-only) and two assumptions in DEA, but fourteen provinces where the efficiency values are not on the frontier in any case and most of them were located in SC. Our results also suggest that improving SE can substantially contribute to national WUE, but exploring the solutions to enhance blue water use efficiency in China is also a key task in the future works. The research results have important implications for China and different provinces to improve agricultural WUE by water policies and management.

Sustainability of Water Withdrawals in the Tiber River Basin (Central Italy)

Problems in the sustainable exploitation of water resources are mainly due to the spatial distribution of uses and are worsened by uncontrolled withdrawals by different activities. In this context, in order to evaluate and manage the available water resources, a decision support system has been developed to support the decision-making processes. This system was implemented on a web platform, in order to manage spatial data and to analyze information on water resources. The system also integrates a WEB-GIS engine for the elaboration and regionalization of data over the river network. The web architecture also makes these tools widely accessible and easily shareable by all stakeholders. The Web-based application was tested successfully in the Tiber River Basin (Central Italy) and focuses on the building of a hydrological database together with an evaluation model for surface water resources. The results provide synthetic information on the sustainability of water allocation scenarios, with particular regard to the feasibility of allowing new dissipative water withdrawal, such as dissipative water use in agricultural production for precision irrigation. The software technology of this project relies on open source code and can also be applied in other fields for the sustainable management of environmental resources.

The UN World Water Development Report 2016, Water and Jobs: A Critical Review

The UN World Water Development Report 2016, <i>Water and Jobs</i>: A Critical Review

Water footprinting of pasture-based farms; beef and sheep

In the context of water use for agricultural production, water footprints (WFs) have become an important sustainability indicator. To understand better the water demand for beef and sheep meat produced on pasture-based systems, a WF of individual farms is required. The main objective of this study was to determine the primary contributors to freshwater consumption up to the farm gate expressed as a volumetric WF and associated impacts for the production of 1 kg of beef and 1 kg of sheep meat from a selection of pasture-based farms for 2 consecutive years, 2014 and 2015. The WF included green water, from the consumption of soil moisture due to evapotranspiration, and blue water, from the consumption of ground and surface waters. The impact of freshwater consumption on global water stress from the production of beef and sheep meat in Ireland was also computed. The average WF of the beef farms was 8391 l/kg carcass weight (CW) of which 8222 l/kg CW was green water and 169 l/kg CW was blue water; water for the production of pasture (including silage and grass) contributed 88% to the WF, concentrate production – 10% and on-farm water use – 1%. The average stress-weighted WF of beef was 91 l H2O eq/kg CW, implying that each kg of beef produced in Ireland contributed to freshwater scarcity equivalent to the consumption of 91 l of freshwater by an average world citizen. The average WF of the sheep farms was 7672 l/kg CW of which 7635 l/kg CW was green water and 37 l/kg CW was blue water; water for the production of pasture contributed 87% to the WF, concentrate production – 12% and on-farm water use – 1%. The average stress-weighted WF was 2 l H2O eq/kg CW for sheep. This study also evaluated the sustainability of recent intensification initiatives in Ireland and found that increases in productivity were supported through an increase in green water use and higher grass yields per hectare on both beef and sheep farms.

Comparing volumetric and impact-oriented water footprint indicators: Case study of agricultural production in Lake Dianchi Basin, China

Water Footprint (WF) assessment provides a basis for quantitative description and evaluation of water consumption and degradation related to human activities. Several different WF methods have been developed, which can be broadly divided into volumetric and impact-oriented approaches. The former, coming from the discipline of water resources management, has mainly focused on water resource consumption. The latter, coming from the discipline of life cycle assessment, has generally considered a wider range of environmental impacts associated with water use, including water degradation. The purpose of this paper was to investigate water use in agricultural production in the environmentally sensitive Lake Dianchi Basin. It was found that WF results had different tendencies depending on the WF assessment method chosen. From 2001–2012, volumetric WF results (20570 ∼ 75838 L kg−1) showed an upward tendency, whereas impact-oriented WF results (1069 ∼ 1453 L H2O-eq kg−1) declined modestly over this period. In the Lake Dianchi Basin, the agricultural water degradation footprint (1047.2 ∼ 1410.9 L H2O-eq kg−1) far outweighed the water scarcity footprint (21.8 ∼ 45.6 L H2O-eq kg−1). There has been a history of agricultural production placing a heavy burden on the quality of catchment water resources. In particular, fertilizers applied to wheat crops contribute to aquatic eutrophication. Wheat cultivation contributed most to the agricultural WF in the Lake Dianchi Basin, followed by tobacco, pulses, and then other cereals. Reductions, over time, in the impact-oriented agricultural WF were explained by reductions in total fertilizer application in the basin, despite increased use of irrigation in some years. These results highlight the importance of considering both water consumption and degradation in a complete WF assessment. Further improvements in fertilizer use efficiency and waste water treatment are identified as priorities in the Lake Dianchi Basin to safeguard water resources.

Comprehensive evaluation of water use in agricultural production: a case study in Hetao Irrigation District, China

Scarcity and competition for water are becoming matters of increasing concern around the world. The interdisciplinary nature of the problem requires that the technical, economic, environmental and social aspects of water usage are integrated into a coherent analytical framework. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of agricultural water use during crop production is a necessary prerequisite for agricultural water management. The present study provides an overview of water-accounting and water footprint assessment methods by analysing the performance, efficiency, economic profitability and environmental impact of the Hetao Irrigation District, China. The performance and efficiency results showed that the total volume of water consumed in the Hetao Irrigation District, during wheat production, was 872 Mm3, of which 116 Mm3 was green water and 756 Mm3 was blue water. Furthermore, 443 Mm3 of the blue water was used effectively, while 313 Mm3 was non-beneficial due to an inefficient irrigation system. The grey water footprint was 152 Mm3 during wheat production, which accounted for 15.42% of the total available water in the district. The results indicated that the economic profit is higher relative to the national average due to the high yields in wheat production in the Hetao Irrigation District. However, efficient use of resources and environmental sustainability were relatively low due to high water consumption and pollution. This study highlighted the need for a comprehensive evaluation of water use in agricultural production and it provides insights by using water footprint and water accounting in water use assessment and is a reference for other related studies.

A biophysical and economic model of agriculture and water in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

Economic analysis of climate scenarios and alternative water policies is critical for development and implementation of appropriate water policies and programs. Mathematical models have been developed to assess water resources policies due to their ability to explicitly represent the biophysical dynamics of natural systems while integrating these within social and economic constraints. These models have been criticised, however, due to the problems of simplification, overspecialisation, plausibility and lack of empirical validation. This paper introduces a mathematical programming model which uses positive mathematical programming method to calibrate and model agriculture and water use in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia. This paper reviews the theoretical and technical details of the model development including the key steps taken in collating and scaling the biophysical and economic data, and to address model parameterisation issues. The paper summarises results of an application of the model for assessing climate change impacts in the form of reduced rainfall and water allocations and increased crop water use for agricultural production. The results show the degree of variability in gross values under different climate scenarios compared to the base case scenario, especially in very dry years. The results also show how on-farm adaptation options and water markets can mitigate these losses.

Assessing potential of biochar for increasing water‐holding capacity of sandy soils

AbstractIncreasing the water‐holding capacity of sandy soils will help improve efficiency of water use in agricultural production, and may be critical for providing enough energy and food for an increasing global population. We hypothesized that addition of biochar will increase the water‐holding capacity of a sandy loam soil, and that the depth of biochar incorporation will influence the rate of biochar surface oxidation in the amended soils. Hardwood fast pyrolysis biochar was mixed with soil (0%, 3%, and 6% w/w) and placed into columns in either the bottom 11.4 cm or the top 11.4 cm to simulate deep banding in rows (DBR) and uniform topsoil mixing (UTM) applications, respectively. Four sets of 18 columns were incubated at 30 °C and 80% RH. Every 7 days, 150 mL of 0.001 M calcium chloride solution was added to the columns to produce leaching. Sets of columns were harvested after 1, 15, 29, and 91 days. Addition of biochar increased the gravity‐drained water content 23% relative to the control. Bulk density of the control soils increased with incubation time (from 1.41 to 1.45 g cm−3), whereas bulk density of biochar‐treated soils was up to 9% less than the control and remained constant throughout the incubation period. Biochar did not affect the CEC of the soil. The results suggest that biochar added to sandy loam soil increases water‐holding capacity and might increase water available for crop use.

INFLUENCE OF DEFICIT IRRIGATION AND REFLECTIVE MULCH ON 'KONSERVOLEA' OLIVE LEAF PHYSIOLOGY DURING THE GROWING PERIOD

Scarcity of irrigation water in the Mediterranean region calls for the development of methods to reduce water use for agricultural production. Deficit irrigation and mulching above the irrigated zone could potentially result in water savings in the extensively cultivated olive. We examined the effect of deficit irrigation and reflective mulch on leaf physiology of 25-year-old 'Konservolea' olive trees during the 2008 growing season. We tested four different treatments: control (irrigated with >100% ET o ), deficit irrigation (30% of control from late July to early September), Extenday reflective mulch on the tree row (from mid July) and their combination. The measured or calculated leaf physiological parameters were: specific leaf weight and chlorophyll a and b content (in late July and early September in concurrent and previous year's leaves), chlorophyll fluorescence, and photosynthetic parameters: photosynthetic and transpiration rates, stomatal conductance, leaf temperature, water-use efficiency and quantum yield (2 days after an irrigation event in late July and late August). Leaf total chlorophyll decreased over the growing period, especially in leaves of the previous year's deficit-irrigated trees. Specific leaf weight, chlorophyll fluorescence ratio (Fv/Fm, a common stress indicator) and leaf temperature were similar soon after treatment initiation (July) and after the 1-month deficit period (August). In contrast, transpiration and photosynthetic rates and stomatal conductance decreased over the growing period in all treatments. Deficit irrigation, reflective mulch and their combination negatively affected most of the physiological leaf parameters including photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, quantum yield and, to a lesser extent, transpiration rate, water-use efficiency and Fv/Fm. These results indicate loss of leaf productivity due to the applied treatments.

Crop coefficient and evaptranspiration of onion at Awash Melkassa, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Improved water management through precise crop water requirement determination is needed to improve the efficiency of water use in agricultural production. As a result, appropriate irrigation scheduling which can lead to water saving, improvements in the yield and income can be designed. In this study, three non-weighing lysimeters having dimensions of 2 m × 1 m × 2 m were used to determine water requirement (ETc) and crop coefficient (Kc) of onion (Bombay Red cultivar). Reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) was determined using weather data recorded at the site. The measured ETc values were 51.3 mm, 140.5 mm, 144.8 mm, and 53.9 mm during the initial, development, mid-season and late season growth stages respectively. Crop coefficient (Kc) values, calculated as ratio of ETc to ETo, were 0.47, 0.99, and 0.46 during the initial and mid-season stages and end of late season. Furthermore, third-order polynomials were fitted well to predict the crop coefficient values as functions of growing degree-days (GDD).

Sustainable land use requires attention to ecological signals.

This case study details the difficulties of landscape management, highlighting the challenges inherent in managing natural resources when multiple agencies are involved, when the land users have no incentive for conservation, and when government agencies have too few resources for effective management. Pumping of groundwater from the aquifer of La Costa de Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, Mexico, began in 1945 and developed so quickly that by the late 1950s salinity intrusion from the Gulf of California was occurring in the wells. In the 1970s, the irrigatable land in La Costa peaked at 132,516 ha and the extracted volume of water from the aquifer peaked at around 1.14 billion cubic meters annually. By the 1980s, 105 wells of the total of 498 were contaminated with seawater and, therefore, identified for closure. At present La Costa de Hermosillo still represents 15% of the total harvested land, 16% of the total annual production, and 23% of the gross agricultural production of the state of Sonora. However, there are approximately 80,000 ha of abandoned fields due to salt water intension, lack of water and/or lack of credit available to individual farmers. This unstable situation resulted from the interplay of water management policies and practices, and farm-land policies and practices. While government agencies have been able to enforce better water use for agricultural production, there remains a significant area that requires restoration from its degraded state. For this piece of the ecosystem management puzzle, government agencies have thus far been unable to affect a solution.

Farm water and soil management for improved water use in the North China Plain

AbstractThe rapid development of industry and urban areas, population growth and rising living standards have all resulted in an increased water demand for non‐agricultural uses in the North China Plain, therefore decreasing the water availability for irrigation. Technologies that favour a reduced demand and water‐saving practices in irrigation are required to assure the sustainability of water use in agricultural production. This paper presents main research results relative to the integration of water and soil management technologies which may contribute to improving the use of water and land in agricultural production, reducing demand for irrigation, and more efficient use of groundwater. Improved estimates of crop irrigation requirements, better irrigation scheduling for the winter wheat crop and improved surface irrigation systems, result in water saving corresponding to about 100 mm in very dry years and up to 250 mm in average years with a small yield increase. These savings represent 16–33% of water use during the wheat crop season. Improvements in soil management lead to improved soil fertility and physical properties (including hydraulic conductivity). These improvements produce potential increases in summer maize yields of between 10 and 20%. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.