Optimizing water management in agriculture is of crucial importance, especially arid and semi-arid regions where the existing shortage exacerbated by human activities climate change [...]

18 Many dryland areas are being converted into intensively managed irrigation crops, what 19 can disrupt the hydrological regime, degrade soil and water quality, enhance siltation, 20 erosion and bank instability, and affect biological communities. Still, the impacts of 21 irrigation schemes on the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are poorly 22 understood. Here we assess the ef...

With the world’s population set to increase by 65% (3.7 billion) by ∼2050, the additional food required to feed future generations will put further enormous pressure on freshwater resources. This is because agriculture is the largest single user of fresh water, accounting for ∼75% of current human water use. At present ∼7% of the world’s population live in areas where water is scarce. This is p...

Rainfed agriculture is practised on 80% of the world’s agricultural area and generates 60–70% of the world’s staple food1 (FAOSTAT, 2005). In semi-arid and dry subhumid zones, rainfed agriculture dominates food production systems, and water is a key limiting factor to crop growth (SEI, 2005). Since approximately 70% of the world’s poor are women, the importance of rainfed sources of food weighs...

F. Bayerl): The lower Yellow and Yangtze Basins are seen as two independent origins of Chinese agriculture. The Yellow offers arid conditions, while the Yangtze has an aquatic environment, the former favourable to maize, millet and sorghum, and the latter to paddy rice. The two main theories of agricultural origins are Optimal Foraging and Competitive Feasting. The differing environments of the...

Biogeochemical factors contributing to enhanced carbon storage following afforestation of a semi-arid shrubland J. M. Grünzweig, I. Gelfand, and D. Yakir Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel Department of Environmental Sciences and Energ...

Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Plant Lipid Research, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203 (P.J.H., C.N.J., K.D.C.); Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 (S.K.G., R.T.M.); Department of Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee 37614 (A.K.); United States Department of Agri...

Small−holder farming in semi−arid areas is being forced to change to compensate for the needs of more people living under conditions of increasingly variable rainfall. As more land is used for agriculture, rangeland areas are reduced, so limiting the availability of animal fodder. The length of fallow periods where soil fertility may be restored is also reduced. This has forced herders and farm...

G. Dahal*†, R. Ortiz, A. Tenkouano, J. d’A. Hughes, G. Thottappilly, D. Vuylsteke and B. E. L. Lockhart International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Oyo Road, PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria (International mailing address c/o L. W. Lambourn & Co., Carolyn House, 26 Dingwall Road, Croydon CR9 3EE, UK); Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA; and Inter...