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A field experiment was carried out to assess the effect of different irrigation systems, which included surface drip irrigation, sub-surface drip irrigation, surface irrigation in basins and cover crop on water productivity, growth and yield of maize in a silty clay loam soil in the Nile sub-district of  Babil Governorate, in the fall season 2020. The experiment was designed using the split plot arrangement according to a complete randomized block design (RCBD) with three replications. The experiment treatments included two factors: cover crop (C) includes cover crop (C1) and without the cover crop (C0), and irrigation systems (I): includes surface drip irrigation (I1) subsurface drip irrigation (I2) and surface irrigation in basins (I3). Scheduling Irrigation was applied after 50% depletion of the plant available water. The water balance equation was used to determine the water consumption of maize. The results showed that C1I3 treatment was highest mean of plant height 235 cm, grain yield 11236 kg ha-1, leaf area 6076 cm2 plant-1, and leaf area index 4.05. Whereas, C0I1 was the lowest values for the previous traits, 183 cm, 5200 kg ha-1, 3997 cm2 plants-1, and 2.67 respectively. Treatment C1I2 was superior in the value of field water use efficiency and crop water use efficiency, which reached 3.49 kg m-3 and 3.05 kg m-3, respectively. Whereas, treatment C0I1 gave the lowest value for field and crop water use efficiency, which was 1.11 kg m-3 and 1.05 kg m-3, respectively. The highest water consumption of maize was 709 mm season-1 was for treatment C0I3, and the lowest water consumption was 362 mm season-1 for the treatment C1I2. It is clear that surface drip irrigation in the presence of cover crop contributed to saving irrigation water by reducing water consumption of maize.

Meeting the food needs of Africa's growing population over the next half-century will require technologies that significantly improve rural livelihoods at minimal environmental cost. These technologies will likely be distinct from those of the Green Revolution, which had relatively little impact in sub-Saharan Africa; consequently, few such interventions have been rigorously evaluated. This paper analyzes solar-powered drip irrigation as a strategy for enhancing food security in the rural Sudano-Sahel region of West Africa. Using a matched-pair comparison of villages in northern Benin (two treatment villages, two comparison villages), and household survey and field-level data through the first year of harvest in those villages, we find that solar-powered drip irrigation significantly augments both household income and nutritional intake, particularly during the dry season, and is cost effective compared to alternative technologies.

The consequences of a changing climate in Central Europe are changes in precipitation patterns and the number of rainfall days per year, an increase in the dry summer months, and, most importantly, a reduction in the availability of water resources for orchard production. This study presents a novel evaluation of irrigation systems in commercial apple orchards, highlighting how their installation can improve water use efficiency and orchard productivity. The following systems were used in the experiments: IR+F-A (drip line placed on a wire mesh), IR+F-B (two drip lines placed on both sides of an auxiliary structure), and IR+F-C (two drip lines placed below the soil surface). Among these, the IR+F-C system achieved the best performance, prolonging annual shoot growth by 10.5%, increasing fruit weight by up to 8.5%, and enhancing the proportion of Extra Class fruits by 29%, and yielding 6–10% more per hectare than the other irrigation treatments. These quantitative findings emphasize the novelty of subsurface drip irrigation under Central European conditions and demonstrate its potential to improve water use efficiency and fruit quality, offering a viable strategy for adapting orchard management to climate change.

The growing demand for irrigated crops, coupled with water scarcity and climate change, has made the adoption of efficient irrigation systems and water-saving strategies essential. However, concerns remain regarding the long-term effects of localized soil wetting and deficit irrigation (DI) on soil health and crop productivity, particularly in clayey soils. In that concern, a three-season study was conducted on citrus trees in clayey soils at the Faculty of Agriculture farm, Benha University, Egypt, to evaluate the application effects of surface (FDI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems, with and without deficit irrigation, on soil properties and crop yield, compared to traditional flood irrigation (FI). Treatments was conducted as Deficit surface drip irrigation (DFDI), Deficit sub-surface drip irrigation (DSDI), full surface drip irrigation (FFDI) and full sub-surface drip irrigation (FSDI). Under full water requirements (FWR), FSDI outperformed FFDI and FI in terms of water savings (31.58%), water use efficiency (WUE) (58.87%), nutrient uptake (N-P-K) (2.44, 10.52, and 5.69%, respectively), and yield (8.70%), with the lowest rates of deterioration over time. In contrast flood irrigation, despite its higher water consumption, it maintained lower levels of root-zone salinity, alkalinity, and sodicity. Under deficit irrigation (DI), DSDI achieved the highest water savings (48.68%), followed by DFDI at 45.82%. However, applying DI caused the highest deterioration rates over time under both irrigation systems for all studied parameters.

Two field experiments were conducted during the spring season 2020 in Karbala governorate, to study the effect of sprinkler and surface drip irrigation systems to determine water consumption of potatoes and irrigation intervals using polymers and bio-fertilizers in desert soils. The experiment included three factors: 1-Irrigation system surface drip T1 and sprinkler T2, 2- The Irrigation interval: every 2 days I1, 4 days I2 and 6 days I3, 3- Addition of soil conditioners: control without any addition C, bio-organic fertilizers (seek) B, polymer (zeba) P, and polymer+ bio-organic fertilizers P+B. The experiment was designed according to the nested design with three replicates. Potato tuber class (Hermosa) rank E was planted. The results showed that the operating pressure of 50-150 kPa was drip and sprinkler irrigation, respectively. Irrigation interval treatment I1 also obtained the lowest added water depth of 212.64 and 486.70 mm at the drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, respectively. Moreover, the actual consumptive use ETa values ​​for irrigation interval I1, I2, and I3 at drip irrigation were 276.44, 428.31, and 593.04 mm, respectively. Though at sprinkler irrigation were 550.50, 959.46, and 1385.08 mm for irrigation intervals I1, I2, and I3, respectively. The highest values ​​of crop coefficient at tuber formation and filling stage were 0.66, 0.79, 1.06, 1.86, 3.42, and 4.73 for the irrigation interval I1, I2, and I3, respectively, at the drip and sprinkler irrigation systems.

Declining water levels in North Indian states are largely attributed to unsustainable consumption of groundwater for irrigation. Drip irrigation, categorized into surface drip (SD) and subsurface drip (SSD) irrigation, offers promising opportunity for reducing crop water requirements while sustaining high water and crop productivity. To compare crop and water productivity of SD and SSD irrigated sugarcane, an experiment was conducted during 2017–18 (plant crop) and 2018–19 (ratoon crop) at Faridkot, Punjab, India. Three irrigation schedules i.e., irrigation at 60, 80, and 100% cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) were applied by SD and SSD methods with 80 and 100% of nitrogen (150 kg ha −1 for plant and 225 kg ha −1 for ratoon) as fertigation. Three standard irrigation practices (surface flood irrigation given to paired row trench at 30–30:120 cm, paired row sugarcane at 130–30:120 cm, and flat bed planted sugarcane at 75 cm spacing) were compared as control treatments. Results revealed that under SD and SSD, the mean cane yield 75.4 to 92.7 t ha −1 during 2017–18 (plant crop) and 72.9 to 79.9 t ha −1 during 2018–19 (ratoon crop) were superior over standard practices. Drip fertigation at 100% CPE with 80% N recorded 31.9 to 46.2% higher water productivity and 49.0 to 44.7% lesser irrigation water than controls. Results of the study highlighted for the use of drip fertigation in sugarcane at 100% CPE with 80% N at 3-day intervals for getting high B:C ratio (1:67–2:78 to 3:04–3:53 under SSD and 1:38–2:60 to 2:49–3:33 under SD), better crop and water productivity, and underground water resource conservation.

Applications of modern micro-irrigation methods are inevitable for optimum water use due to the limitations imposed by irrigation water resource scarcity. Regardless of water shortages and associated challenges in dry areas, the irrigation of date palm trees consumes an excessive quantity of water annually using conventional irrigation methods. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the effects of modern surface and subsurface micro-irrigation systems, i.e., subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI), controlled surface irrigation (CSI), and surface drip-irrigation methods (SDI), with different irrigation water regimes, i.e., 50%, 75%, and 100% irrigation water requirements (IWRs), on the yield and fruit quality of date palms (cv. Khalas) and water conservation in the dryland region of Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. The effects of three irrigation methods and IWRs were studied on macronutrients and soil chemical properties at three depths (0–30, 30–60, and 60–90 cm), as well as on water productivity, yield, and the fruit quality of date palms. The study was carried out over two years and was designed using a two-factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with nine replications. The results indicated that electrical conductivity (EC) increased as the depth of the soil increased. The soil chemical properties did not change much in all experimental treatments, while soil pH values decreased with the soil depth from 0–30 to 60–90 cm. Although the maximum fruit yield (96.62 kg palm−1) was recorded when 100% irrigation water was applied in the SSDI system, other treatment combinations, such as SDI at 100% IWR (84.86 kg palm−1), SSDI at 75% IWR (84.84 kg palm−1), and CSI at 100% IWR (83.86 kg palm−1) behaved alike and showed promising results. Similarly, the highest irrigation water productivity (2.11 kg m−3) was observed in the SSDI system at 50% IWR, followed by the SSDI at 75% IWR (1.64 kg m−3) and 100% IWR (1.40 kg m−3). Fruit quality attributes were also promoted with the SSDI system at 75% IWR. Hence, the SSDI method at 75% IWR appeared to be an optimal choice for date palm irrigation in arid areas due to its positive impact on water conservation and fruit characteristics without affecting soil chemical properties.

Drip irrigation technology is widely used in agricultural production in the Xinjiang region. However, there are still a series of problems in the mechanized recovery of field drip irrigation belts, such as easy breakage of drip irrigation belts, low recovery efficiency, and excessive doping of recycled drip irrigation belts. This study focused on the problems of mechanized recovery of drip irrigation belts in Xinjiang and designed a new type of drip irrigation belt recovery machine. The key mechanisms of the new drip irrigation belt recovery machine were designed and theoretically analyzed, and their basic parameters were determined. Then, the superiority of the new drip irrigation belt recovery machine’s operational performance was verified through experiments. The experimental results showed that the new drip irrigation belt recovery machine is superior to existing machines in terms of the drip irrigation belt recovery rate and operational efficiency. In addition, the drip irrigation belts recovered by the newly designed machine have low impurity content. During the recovery process, the new machine requires less labor input than that of the existing machine.

Real-time sensors for precision irrigation schedulating are used for enhancing water efficiency and optimizing resource usage. Poor resource management can negatively impact traditional farming practices, particularly in regions limited by water shortages. Agriculture is susceptible due to its heavy reliance on water resources. Due to global warming and its potential impacts, there is a growing emphasis on developing strategies to ensure a steady water supply for food production and consumption. As a result, research on reducing water usage in irrigation systems needs to be implemented. While traditional commercial irrigation sensors are often too expensive for smaller farms to adopt, manufacturers are now producing affordable alternatives that can be integrated with network systems to provide cost-effective solutions for efficient irrigation and agricultural monitoring. To minimize a farmer’s efforts, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based drip irrigation system is proposed in this work. Initially, the required data is collected using the IoT sensors. The gathered data is fed into the Adaptive Residual Hybrid network (ARHN) that is developed by using the Spatial Autoencoder and Stacked CapsNet. Here, the Modernized Random Variable-based Frilled Lizard Optimization (MRV-FLO) is utilized to tune the ARHN parameters. Therefore, the required water from the pump for the crops is provided by the ARHN model. In addition, this model makes the work simpler and avoids the wastage of water in the agricultural environment. Finally, the performance of the developed framework is validated over the existing works to prove the efficiency of the recommended method. The main experimental findings of the developed model achieve 99.24% and 97.32% in terms of accuracy and RMSE. Moreover, the statistical findings of the developed model shows 41.9%, 34.9%, 36.0% and 37.1% better performance than LEA-ARHN, FDA-ARHN, AOA-ARHN and FLO-ARHN in terms of best measure. Based on this performance enhancement, the developed model can effectively reduces the farmer’s effort and improves the crop productivity in the agricultural sectors.

The water resources in the Yellow River irrigation area of Inner Mongolia are tight, and the utilization efficiency of farmland irrigation water is low. The shallow buried drip irrigation mode is adopted in the local oat double-cropping planting, but its growth and development and water consumption process are not clear. In-depth study of the growth and water consumption of forage oats in the whole growth period under this model is very important for optimizing irrigation system, improving water use efficiency and increasing crop yield. A field experiment was conducted in Tumotezuoqi, Inner Mongolia. The database was established according to the meteorological-soil-crop-irrigation factors in 2022 and 2023, and the AquaCrop model was used for simulation research. The AquaCrop model was calibrated and validated using measured data for 2022 and 2023. The simulation results showed that the simulated values of soil water content, canopy coverage and yield were in good agreement with the observed values. The performance index ( EF ) of the model is 0.70 to 0.94, indicating that the overall performance of the model is high. Specifically, the root mean square error (RMSE) of soil water content ranged from 2.04 to 3.42%, the RMSE of canopy coverage ranged from 8.27 to 9.54%, and the RMSE of yield ranged from 0.28 to 0.33 tons / ha. In addition, the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) is between 0.85 and 0.94, which further verifies the high fitting degree and reliability of the model. The total water requirement of forage oats during the whole growth period was 230.7–333.1 mm, and the total water consumption was 214.7–315.4 mm. The drainage loss is 1.2–10.6 mm, accounting for 0.3%–5.40% of the total water demand. In 2022 and 2023, the water productivity (WP) of the second crop is 0.1–0.4 kg / m 3 higher than that of the first crop. These findings help to provide valuable insights for optimizing agricultural water management practices in the region.