Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences

With limited water resources to divert for agriculture, innovations aimed at increasing efficient use of irrigation water must be developed. Among the means to survive the consequences of water scarcity and yet to sustain high crop production under irrigated agriculture with decreasing share of water, deficient irrigation programs are highly valued and their adoption is widely promoted. However, to ensure that the same level of crop yields as in full irrigation can still be achieved with deficient irrigation, experience regarding crop yield response to deficient irrigation programs must be gained. This book discusses general concept and management issues of deficient irrigation practices, covering a wide range of field crops including cotton, maize, soybean, wheat, sugar cane, and the like, based on five years of field research implemented in fourteen different countries, in Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Additionally, guidelines are given for experimental methodology and data analysis for evaluating crop yield response to deficient irrigation. Experimental data, discussions and cited references will be an asset not only to field irrigation engineers but also to research scientists including soil and irrigation scientists and agronomists, for whom the book would be an invaluable reference source.