Water resources and water use efficiency in the North China Plain: Current status and agronomic management options

Fang, QX; Ma, L; Green, TR; Yu, Q; Wang, TD; Ahuja, LR

Water resources and water use efficiency in the North China Plain: Current status and agronomic management options

Fang, QX Ma, L Green, TR Yu, Q

Wang, TD Ahuja, LR

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Agricultural Water Management, 2010, 97 (8), pp. 1102 - 1116
Issue Date:: 2010-08-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Fang, QX	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Ma, L	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Green, TR	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Yu, Q https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6950-1821	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Wang, TD	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Ahuja, LR	en_US
dc.date.issued	2010-08-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Agricultural Water Management, 2010, 97 (8), pp. 1102 - 1116	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0378-3774	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/13447
dc.description.abstract	Serious water deficits and deteriorating environmental quality are threatening agricultural sustainability in the North China Plain (NCP). This paper addresses spatial and temporal availability of water resources in the NCP, identifies the effects of soil management, irrigation timing and amounts, and crop genetic improvement on water use efficiency (WUE), and then discusses knowledge gaps and research priorities to further improve WUE. Enhanced irrigation and soil nutrient (mainly nitrogen) management are the focal issues in the NCP for enhancing WUE, which are shown to increase WUE by 10-25% in a wheat-maize double cropping system. Crop breeding has also contributed to increased of WUE and is expected to play an important role in the future as genetic and environmental interactions are understood better. Agricultural system models and remote sensing have been used to evaluate and improve current agronomic management practices for increasing WUE at field and regional scales. The low WUE in farmer's fields compared with well-managed experimental sites indicates that more efforts are needed to transfer water-saving technologies to the farmers. We also identified several knowledge gaps for further increasing WUE in the NCP by: (1) increasing scientific understanding of the effects of agronomic management on WUE across various soil and climate conditions; (2) quantifying the interaction between soil water and nitrogen in water-limited agriculture for improving both water and nitrogen-use efficiency; (3) improving irrigation practices (timing and amounts) based on real-time monitoring of water status in soil-crop systems; and (4) maximizing regional WUE by managing water resources and allocation at regional scales. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Agricultural Water Management	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.agwat.2010.01.008	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Agronomy & Agriculture	en_US
dc.title	Water resources and water use efficiency in the North China Plain: Current status and agronomic management options	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	8	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	97	en_US
utslib.for	0701 Agriculture, Land and Farm Management	en_US
utslib.for	0799 Other Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences	en_US
utslib.for	0905 Civil Engineering	en_US
dc.location.activity	ISI:000279042000002	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science/School of Life Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	8	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	97	en_US

Abstract:

Serious water deficits and deteriorating environmental quality are threatening agricultural sustainability in the North China Plain (NCP). This paper addresses spatial and temporal availability of water resources in the NCP, identifies the effects of soil management, irrigation timing and amounts, and crop genetic improvement on water use efficiency (WUE), and then discusses knowledge gaps and research priorities to further improve WUE. Enhanced irrigation and soil nutrient (mainly nitrogen) management are the focal issues in the NCP for enhancing WUE, which are shown to increase WUE by 10-25% in a wheat-maize double cropping system. Crop breeding has also contributed to increased of WUE and is expected to play an important role in the future as genetic and environmental interactions are understood better. Agricultural system models and remote sensing have been used to evaluate and improve current agronomic management practices for increasing WUE at field and regional scales. The low WUE in farmer's fields compared with well-managed experimental sites indicates that more efforts are needed to transfer water-saving technologies to the farmers. We also identified several knowledge gaps for further increasing WUE in the NCP by: (1) increasing scientific understanding of the effects of agronomic management on WUE across various soil and climate conditions; (2) quantifying the interaction between soil water and nitrogen in water-limited agriculture for improving both water and nitrogen-use efficiency; (3) improving irrigation practices (timing and amounts) based on real-time monitoring of water status in soil-crop systems; and (4) maximizing regional WUE by managing water resources and allocation at regional scales. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/13447