IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15716-d1275872.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Subsurface Irrigation on Crop Yield and Water Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Jin Guo

    (College of Water Resource Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China)

  • Lijian Zheng

    (College of Water Resource Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China)

  • Juanjuan Ma

    (College of Water Resource Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China)

  • Xufeng Li

    (College of Water Resource Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China)

  • Ruixia Chen

    (College of Water Resource Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China)

Abstract

Problems such as population growth and climate change have led to a reduction in the use of water for irrigated agriculture, constraining the growth of crops. Subsurface irrigation, as a widely used and efficient water-saving irrigation technology, varies in its effect on increasing yields and saving water under different environmental, management, and other conditions. To investigate the effects of subsurface irrigation on yield, water productivity (WP), and irrigation water productivity (IWP) of three typical crops (wheat, maize, and cotton), this paper conducted a meta-analysis of 528 pairs of studies from 64 papers worldwide to quantify the response of crop yield, WP, and IWP to subsurface irrigation. Overall, the yield, WP and IWP increased by 5.96%, 21.62%, and 27.72%, respectively, with subsurface irrigation compared with surface irrigation. Compared with other conditions, the greatest rate of change was observed at around 200–500 m above sea level, 10–15 °C average annual temperature, 1.45–1.55 g/cm 3 soil bulk density, alkaline soil, and when the crops were planted with equal row spacing. Meanwhile, the amount of irrigation water, as well as the subsurface pipeline arrangement and burial depth, had significant effects on crop yield, WP, and IWP. The maximum increase in crop yield, WP, and IWP was favored when the irrigation volume of the subsurface irrigation was reduced by 50–100% compared with surface irrigation or when both had the same volume of irrigation but a mild water deficit. In addition, the yield, WP, and IWP were also affected by fertilization factors. The recommended fertilizer application rates were ≤90 kg P ha –1 (phosphorus) and <150 kg N ha –1 (nitrogen). Compared with surface irrigation, subsurface irrigation showed the greatest yield increase when fertilizer was applied in a one-time application, and the WP and IWP increased significantly when the number of fertilizer applications was <3.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin Guo & Lijian Zheng & Juanjuan Ma & Xufeng Li & Ruixia Chen, 2023. "Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Subsurface Irrigation on Crop Yield and Water Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15716-:d:1275872
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15716/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15716/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xianliang Wang & Jin He & Mingyue Bai & Lei Liu & Shang Gao & Kun Chen & Haiyang Zhuang, 2022. "The Impact of Traffic-Induced Compaction on Soil Bulk Density, Soil Stress Distribution and Key Growth Indicators of Maize in North China Plain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Xiao, Guoju & Zhang, Qiang & Li, Yu & Wang, Runyuan & Yao, Yubi & Zhao, Hong & Bai, Huzhi, 2010. "Impact of temperature increase on the yield of winter wheat at low and high altitudes in semiarid northwestern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(9), pages 1360-1364, September.
    3. Wang, Linlin & Wu, Wenyong & Xiao, Juan & Huang, Qiannan & Hu, Yaqi, 2021. "Effects of different drip irrigation modes on water use efficiency of pear trees in Northern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    4. Yu, Liuyang & Zhao, Xining & Gao, Xiaodong & Siddique, Kadambot H.M., 2020. "Improving/maintaining water-use efficiency and yield of wheat by deficit irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    5. Ma, Xiaochi & Han, Feng & Wu, Jinggui & Ma, Yan & Jacoby, Pete W., 2023. "Optimizing crop water productivity and altering root distribution of Chardonnay grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) in a silt loam soil through direct root-zone deficit irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    6. Huang, Lihua & Liu, Xuan & Wang, Zhichun & Liang, Zhengwei & Wang, Mingming & Liu, Miao & Suarez, Donald L., 2017. "Interactive effects of pH, EC and nitrogen on yields and nutrient absorption of rice (Oryza sativa L.)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 48-57.
    7. Wang, Haidong & Wang, Naijiang & Quan, Hao & Zhang, Fucang & Fan, Junliang & Feng, Hao & Cheng, Minghui & Liao, Zhenqi & Wang, Xiukang & Xiang, Youzhen, 2022. "Yield and water productivity of crops, vegetables and fruits under subsurface drip irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    8. Al-Ghobari, Hussein M. & Dewidar, Ahmed Z., 2018. "Integrating deficit irrigation into surface and subsurface drip irrigation as a strategy to save water in arid regions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 55-61.
    9. Patel, Neelam & Rajput, T.B.S., 2007. "Effect of drip tape placement depth and irrigation level on yield of potato," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-3), pages 209-223, March.
    10. Huizi Bai & Fulu Tao & Dengpan Xiao & Fengshan Liu & He Zhang, 2016. "Attribution of yield change for rice-wheat rotation system in China to climate change, cultivars and agronomic management in the past three decades," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 539-553, April.
    11. Cheng, Minghui & Wang, Haidong & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Shaohui & Liao, Zhenqi & Zhang, Fucang & Wang, Yanli, 2021. "A global meta-analysis of yield and water use efficiency of crops, vegetables and fruits under full, deficit and alternate partial root-zone irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    12. Mo, Yan & Li, Guangyong & Wang, Dan, 2017. "A sowing method for subsurface drip irrigation that increases the emergence rate, yield, and water use efficiency in spring corn," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 288-295.
    13. Gao, Yang & Yang, Linlin & Shen, Xiaojun & Li, Xinqiang & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang & Wu, Laosheng, 2014. "Winter wheat with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI): Crop coefficients, water-use estimates, and effects of SDI on grain yield and water use efficiency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-10.
    14. Cao, Yuxin & Cai, Huanjie & Sun, Shikun & Gu, Xiaobo & Mu, Qing & Duan, Weina & Zhao, Zhengxin, 2022. "Effects of drip irrigation methods on yield and water productivity of maize in Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Haidong & Wang, Naijiang & Quan, Hao & Zhang, Fucang & Fan, Junliang & Feng, Hao & Cheng, Minghui & Liao, Zhenqi & Wang, Xiukang & Xiang, Youzhen, 2022. "Yield and water productivity of crops, vegetables and fruits under subsurface drip irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    2. Feng Wu & Xuefang Feng & Xuemei Liu & Di Wu & Songmei Zai & Linbao Liu, 2024. "Effects of Burial Furrow Parameters on Soil Water Movement under Subsurface Stalk Composite Pipe Irrigation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Allakonon, M. Gloriose B. & Zakari, Sissou & Tovihoudji, Pierre G. & Fatondji, A. Sènami & Akponikpè, P.B. Irénikatché, 2022. "Grain yield, actual evapotranspiration and water productivity responses of maize crop to deficit irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    4. Chen, Yu & Zhang, Jian-Hua & Chen, Mo-Xian & Zhu, Fu-Yuan & Song, Tao, 2023. "Optimizing water conservation and utilization with a regulated deficit irrigation strategy in woody crops: A review," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    5. Yi-Xuan Lu & Si-Ting Wang & Guan-Xin Yao & Jing Xu, 2023. "Green Total Factor Efficiency in Vegetable Production: A Comprehensive Ecological Analysis of China’s Practices," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-25, October.
    6. Firouzabadi, Ali Ghadami & Baghani, Javad & Jovzi, Mehdi & Albaji, Mohammad, 2021. "Effects of wheat row spacing layout and drip tape spacing on yield and water productivity in sandy clay loam soil in a semi-arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    7. Xian Liu & Yueyue Xu & Shikun Sun & Xining Zhao & Yubao Wang, 2022. "Analysis of the Coupling Characteristics of Water Resources and Food Security: The Case of Northwest China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, July.
    8. Yamini, Vaddula & Singh, Kulvir, 2024. "Emitter spacing, depth of lateral placement, and nutrient levels affect productivity of cotton-wheat cropping system under sub-surface drip fertigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    9. Wang, Jiaxin & He, Xinlin & Gong, Ping & Heng, Tong & Zhao, Danqi & Wang, Chunxia & Chen, Quan & Wei, Jie & Lin, Ping & Yang, Guang, 2024. "Response of fragrant pear quality and water productivity to lateral depth and irrigation amount," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    10. Ruifeng Sun & Juanjuan Ma & Xihuan Sun & Lijian Zheng & Jiachang Guo, 2023. "Responses of the Leaf Water Physiology and Yield of Grapevine via Different Irrigation Strategies in Extremely Arid Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Cheng, Minghui & Wang, Haidong & Fan, Junliang & Wang, Xiukang & Sun, Xin & Yang, Ling & Zhang, Shaohui & Xiang, Youzhen & Zhang, Fucang, 2021. "Crop yield and water productivity under salty water irrigation: A global meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    12. Singh, Manpreet & Singh, Sukhbir & Deb, Sanjit & Ritchie, Glen, 2023. "Root distribution, soil water depletion, and water productivity of sweet corn under deficit irrigation and biochar application," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    13. Wen, Shenglin & Cui, Ningbo & Gong, Daozhi & Liu, Chunwei & Xing, Liwen & Wu, Zongjun & Wang, Zhihui & Wang, Jiaxin, 2023. "A global meta-analysis of yield and water productivity of woody, herbaceous and vine fruits under deficit irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    14. Tang, Jiankai & Yang, Qiliang & Liang, Jiaping & Wang, Haidong & Yue, Xiulu, 2024. "Water management, planting slope indicators, and economic benefit analysis for Panax notoginseng production decision under shaded and rain-shelter cultivation: A three-year sloping fields experiment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    15. Wang, Haidong & Cheng, Minghui & Liao, Zhenqi & Guo, Jinjin & Zhang, Fucang & Fan, Junliang & Feng, Hao & Yang, Qiliang & Wu, Lifeng & Wang, Xiukang, 2023. "Performance evaluation of AquaCrop and DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato models in simulating potato growth, yield and water productivity under various drip fertigation regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    16. Rosa, R.D. & Ramos, T.B. & Pereira, L.S., 2016. "The dual Kc approach to assess maize and sweet sorghum transpiration and soil evaporation under saline conditions: Application of the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 77-94.
    17. Wang, Guangshuai & Liang, Yueping & Zhang, Qian & Jha, Shiva K. & Gao, Yang & Shen, Xiaojun & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang, 2016. "Mitigated CH4 and N2O emissions and improved irrigation water use efficiency in winter wheat field with surface drip irrigation in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 403-407.
    18. Wen, Shenglin & Cui, Ningbo & Wang, Yaosheng & Gong, Daozhi & Xing, Liwen & Wu, Zongjun & Zhang, Yixuan & Zhao, Long & Fan, Junliang & Wang, Zhihui, 2024. "Optimizing deficit drip irrigation to improve yield,quality, and water productivity of apple in Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    19. Zhou, Zhenjiang & Plauborg, Finn & Parsons, David & Andersen, Mathias Neumann, 2018. "Potato canopy growth, yield and soil water dynamics under different irrigation systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 9-18.
    20. Mo, Yan & Li, Guangyong & Wang, Dan, 2017. "A sowing method for subsurface drip irrigation that increases the emergence rate, yield, and water use efficiency in spring corn," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 288-295.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15716-:d:1275872. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.