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Management and Strategies for Improving the Use of Saline Water in Agriculture

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A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2022) | Viewed by 15832

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Peiling Yang

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Guest Editor

College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: irrigation; water-saving technologies; ecological irrigation district; soil quality improvement; simulation of water movement; crop nutrition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Renkuan Liao

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Guest Editor

Department of Irrigation and Drainage, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100048, China
Interests: agricultural water management; soil and water environment restoration; environmental tracer technology; root water uptake model; water transport model
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Yunkai Li

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Guest Editor

College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: drip irrigation; water quality; fertigation; irrigation engineering; microirrigation; saline water

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global water shortage has caused great challenges to the sustainable development of agriculture. Saline water has been regarded as an alternative to agricultural irrigation, which plays an increasingly important role in agricultural irrigation in water shortage areas. However, long-term saline irrigation or unreasonable irrigation patterns can lead to adverse environmental problems, such as soil salinization or crop loss. Therefore, it’s necessary to study management and strategies for improving the use of saline water in agriculture.

This special issue aims to publish original research or review articles on the use of saline water for irrigation. These articles will cover a broad range from technology research to policy suggestion, including the simulation of water and salt transport, the optimal mode of saline irrigation, the effects of saline irrigation on crop growth, the environmental impact assessment of saline irrigation, and the policy of saline irrigation development.

Prof. Dr. Peiling Yang
Dr. Renkuan Liao
Prof. Dr. Yunkai Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

saline water
sustainable agriculture
water and salt transport
environmental impact assessment
irrigation technique
irrigation strategy
soil salinization
water use efficiency

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 4479 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Adapting Root Distribution and Improving Water Use Efficiency via Drip Irrigation in a Jujube (Zizyphus jujube Mill.) Orchard after Long-Term Flood Irrigation

by Zhaoyang Li, Rui Zong, Tianyu Wang, Zhenhua Wang and Jinzhu Zhang

Agriculture 2021, 11(12), 1184; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11121184 - 24 Nov 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6430

Abstract

Jujube tree yields in dryland saline soils are restricted by water shortages and soil salinity. Converting traditional flood irrigation to drip irrigation would solve water deficit and salt stress. The root distribution reacts primarily to the availability of water and nutrients. However, there is little information about the response of jujube roots to the change from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. In this context, a two–year experiment was carried out to reveal the effects of the change from long–term flood irrigation to drip irrigation on soil water, root distribution, fruit yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of jujube trees. In this study, drip irrigation amounts were designed with three levels, i.e., 880 mm (W1), 660 mm (W2), 440 mm (W3), and the flood irrigation of 1100 mm was designed as the control (CK). The results showed that replacing flood irrigation with drip irrigation significantly altered soil water distribution and increased soil moisture in the topsoil (0–40 cm). In the drip irrigation treatments with high levels, soil water storage in the 0–60 cm soil layer at the flowering and fruit setting, and fruit swelling stages of jujube trees increased significantly compared with the flood irrigation. After two consecutive years of drip irrigation, the treatments with higher irrigation levels increased root length density (RLD) in 0–60 cm soil depth but decreased that in the 60–100 cm depth. In the horizontal direction, higher irrigation levels increased RLD in the distance of 0–50 cm, while reducing RLD in the distance of 50–100 cm. However, the opposite conclusion was obtained in W3 treatment. Additionally, in the second year of drip irrigation, W2 treatment (660 mm) significantly improved yield and WUE, with an increasing of 7.6% for yield and 60.3% for WUE compared to the flood irrigation. In summary, converting flood irrigation to drip irrigation is useful in regulating root distribution and improving WUE, which would be a promising method in jujube cultivation in arid regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Strategies for Improving the Use of Saline Water in Agriculture)

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20 pages, 4887 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Simulation of Soil Water and Heat Flow under Plastic Mulching and Different Ridge Patterns

by Ruofan Li, Juanjuan Ma, Xihuan Sun, Xianghong Guo and Lijian Zheng

Agriculture 2021, 11(11), 1099; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11111099 - 04 Nov 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1683

Abstract

The ridge–furrow mulching system with plastic film (RFMS) has been widely used in semi-arid areas in order to improve soil water and heat conditions, crop yields and water use efficiency. It is of practical significance to study the effect of mulching and ridge types on soil water and heat in order to optimize mulching measures and improve the effectiveness of the ridge and furrow system. To clarify the combined effect of soil water and heat beneath the system and the influence of ridge morphology on it, field experiments were conducted with three treatments, including conventional planting in bare land (CK), a ridge–furrow (wide ridge with 70 cm width and 10 cm height, narrow ridge with 40 cm width and 15 cm height) mulching system with complete plastic film (RFWN) and a ridge–furrow (equal ridge with 55 cm width and 15 cm height) mulching system with complete plastic film (RFE). An insufficient irrigation system was adopted and the two-dimensional numerical software HYDRUS-2D was used to simulate the soil water and heat flow under the experimental conditions. The model was calibrated and verified according to test data for the period of 2018 to 2019, which showed good agreement between the simulated and measured values. The simulation results revealed that the ground temperatures of RFWN and RFE were much higher than that of CK, and the average value of 0–25 cm during the growth period could increase by 2.29–4.61%. Compared with CK, RFWN and RFE reduced soil evaporation (84.71–93.73%) and field evapotranspiration (12.02–21.75%), while they increased root water uptake (25.87–40.98%) and T/ET (48.85–80.15%). Plastic film mulching and ridge morphologies affected the infiltration range and the direction of soil water movement, increased soil moisture when there was no rainfall or irrigation and reduced soil water and heat fluctuations, which was more conducive to crop growth, especially under the RFWN system. The simulation method proposed in this paper is an effective technique for calculating the soil water and heat dynamics under different ridge and furrow sections under the condition of film mulching, and it can be used for the optimal management of soil water and heat in this area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Strategies for Improving the Use of Saline Water in Agriculture)

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16 pages, 3123 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Separation and Desalination Process for Farmland Saline-Alkaline Water

by Qiaonan Yang, Can Hu, Jie Li, Xiaokang Yi, Yichuan He, Jie Zhang and Zhilin Sun

Agriculture 2021, 11(10), 1001; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11101001 - 13 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1962

Abstract

Salination poses serious hazards to farmland soil. For the purpose of solving soil salination, desalination of water sources, and other problems faced by arid areas, a separation and desalination process for farmland saline-alkaline water is proposed; a separation and desalination device based on this process is also presented and tested. Results indicate that water associated with the pretreatment device satisfied the working conditions of the composite nanofiltration (NF)-reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system. The composite NF-RO membrane system produced a better filtering effect than either the NF membrane or the RO membrane. When used for filtering saline-alkaline water, the composite NF-RO membrane system achieved a desalination rate of 96.06%, a total hardness removal rate of 98.93%, and a Cl- removal rate of 99.32%, adhering to the standard for irrigation water quality. The flashing-condensation process realized a fresh water recovery rate greater than 70%. During brine evaporation using solar salt making processes, the primary compound of crystals precipitated was NaCl (with a relative content of 93%), suggesting that the precipitates have the potential values of industrial salts. These findings offer new technical references for solving the problem of farmland irrigation water faced by saline-alkaline areas worldwide. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Strategies for Improving the Use of Saline Water in Agriculture)

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Review

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20 pages, 2643 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

A Review of the Category, Mechanism, and Controlling Methods of Chemical Clogging in Drip Irrigation System

by Kaili Shi, Tiangang Lu, Wengang Zheng, Xin Zhang and Lili Zhangzhong

Agriculture 2022, 12(2), 202; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture12020202 - 31 Jan 2022

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4704

Abstract

Drip irrigation is an important way to alleviate the global water shortage. However, the emitter-clogging issue of drip irrigation directly affects irrigation uniformity and operation efficiency, even disabling the whole system and reducing crop production. Currently, with the widespread use of saline water and large-scale utilization of fertigation, the issue with the chemical clogging of emitters has become more prominent. The poor uniformity of irrigation and fertilization distribution caused by emitter clogging results in salt damage and fertilizer loss due to the complex clogging mechanism. However, no extensive information on chemical clogging is available. Herein, we surveyed the latest research on chemical clogging caused by saline water irrigation and fertigation in drip irrigation systems and described the clogging mechanisms of the emitter by analyzing the key factors, clogging rules, and substances. We also present a framework of the control technologies for clogging based on physical, chemical, and biological methods. Finally, we present the current challenges of fertigation with saline water and technical trends of emitter clogging in the drip irrigation system. To conclude, the efficient integration of these three methods is critical to prevent and eliminate chemical clogging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Strategies for Improving the Use of Saline Water in Agriculture)

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