Water-saving agriculture can deliver deep water cuts for China

Mechanisms underlying plant resilience to water deficits: prospects for water-saving agriculture.

Drought is one of the greatest limitations to crop expansion outside the present-day agricultural areas. It will become increasingly important in regions of the globe where, in the past, the problem was negligible, due to the recognized changes in global climate. Today the concern is with improving cultural practices and crop genotypes for drought-prone areas; therefore, understanding the mecha...

Systemic Signaling Under Water Deficit Condition and Its Exploitation in Water Saving Agriculture

Water charging and water saving in agriculture. Insights from a Revealed Preference Model in a Mediterranean basin

The large irrigation expansion of the last 50 years has significantly increased pressures over water resources in EU Mediterranean basins. Under these circumstances water pricing has been especially encouraged, since within the EU policy context it is widely believed that higher water prices reduce water demand. This paper presents a Revealed Preference Model that provides a clear intuition of ...

Sensing sugar and saving water

Water is the major factor limiting the growth and development of many land plants, and stomata, composed of two guard cells, are the chief gates controlling plants’ water loss. Many environmental and physiological stimuli control stomatal opening, but they all do so through the regulation of guard-cell osmolarity. Increased guard-cell osmolarity leads to the opening of the stomata and decreased...

Characteristics of water consumption in water-saving winter wheat and effects on the utilization of subsequent summer rainfall in the North China Plain

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grows in dry season but summer maize (Zea mays L.) coincides with rainfall in the North China Plain (NCP). Increasing rainfall use efficiency and harmonizing its utilization between the two species is an effective way to mitigate impact on groundwater deriving from wheat irrigation. One to four times water supply (W1, to W4) were employed in wheat, three wate...