Restoring soil health to reduce irrigation demand and buffer the impacts of drought

doi:10.15302/J-FASE-2020348

Front. Agr. Sci. Eng.

2020, Vol. 7

Issue (3) : 339-346 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2020348

REVIEW

Restoring soil health to reduce irrigation demand and buffer the impacts of drought

Rebecca SCHNEIDER¹(

), Stephen MORREALE¹, Zhigang LI², Erin MENZIES PLUER³, Kirsten KURTZ⁴, Xilu NI⁵, Cuiping WANG⁶, Changxiao LI⁷, Harold VAN ES⁸

¹. Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853, USA
². School of Agriculture, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
³. Modeling and Spatial Analysis Lab, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Canada
⁴. Cornell Soil Health Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853, USA
⁵. Breeding Base for State Key Laboratory of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration of North-western China, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
⁶. State Key Laboratory of the Seedling Bioengineering, Ningxia Forestry Institute, Yinchuan 750004, China
⁷. College of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
⁸. Department Soil and Crop Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853, USA

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Abstract

Irrigation consumes three quarters of global water withdrawals each year. Strategies are needed to reduce irrigation water use, including increasing the efficiency of transfer methods and field application. Comprehensive restoration of soil health, specifically through organic matter amendments, can substantially reduce irrigation demand and increase crop yield. A program to restore severely degraded and desertified soils by incorporating coarse woodchips into the soil successfully increased rainfall capture and elevated soil moisture for several weeks between rainfall events at both Ningxia, north-west China and North Dakota, USA. With addition of fertilizer, woodchip incorporation further increased growth of wheat and alfalfa. Comprehensive soil health assessment of remnant grasslands was used to develop target reference soil profiles by which to guide restoration efforts. Given that most agricultural soils are degraded to some degree, soil health restoration can provide a powerful strategy toward achieving global food and water security.

Keywords drought irrigation restoration soil health woodchips

Corresponding Author(s): Rebecca SCHNEIDER

Just Accepted Date: 30 June 2020 Online First Date: 20 July 2020 Issue Date: 28 July 2020

Cite this article:

Rebecca SCHNEIDER,Stephen MORREALE,Zhigang LI, et al. Restoring soil health to reduce irrigation demand and buffer the impacts of drought[J]. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 2020, 7(3): 339-346.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2020348
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/Y2020/V7/I3/339

Fig.1 Differences in patterns of volumetric soil water content between unamended soil (control) and three different treatments in adjacent irrigated (a) and non-irrigated (b) field plots, Ningxia, China (Mulch= surface-applied woodchips; Wchips= 5% woodchips incorporated into soil; Wchips+ Br= incorporated woodchips plus branch shelter). See Li et al. for details of methods^[²⁷^].

Fig.2 Comparison of sunflower crop grown simultaneously in adjacent plots in saline soils, without woodchip amendment (a) and with woodchip amendment (b) in Pinlou, China (photos: ©Rebecca Schneider, June 21, 2016, 12:04 P.M.).

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