Read the full study on Scientific Reports.
In the face of declining water resources and ballooning global demand for food, PSS researchers are looking to provide a clear picture of what the future of vegetable production can look like.
As practical and financial water restrictions loom — particularly in arid and semi-arid regions — it is becoming critical for growers to find an informed balance between the costs of irrigation and reduced crop yield. To that end, a recent meta-analysis study in Dr. Sukhbir Singh's lab evaluated the effects of deficit irrigation strategies to provide an estimate of yield and water productivity responses under a variety of conditions.
The study, “A global meta-analysis of yield and water productivity responses of vegetables to deficit irrigation”, was conducted by Manpreet Singh, Paramveer Singh, Sukhbir Singh, Rupinder Kaur Saini, and Sangamesh Angadi. Significantly, the meta-analysis was published in Scientific Reports, a high-impact journal in the Nature Portfolio. With its open-access model and as the 6th most-cited journal in the world, the publication is a globally visible platform for research to be made directly available to policy-makers, researchers, media, and the general public.
Previous studies and meta-analyses on the topic have been limited in terms of specificity or scope. This study analyzed hundreds of yield and water productivity comparisons across a range of irrigation levels, taking into account variations in species, genotypes, soil characteristics, climatic conditions, and production systems
With data extracted from 185 published studies representing 30 countries, the meta-analysis is a significant contribution toward providing decision makers with a comprehensive understanding of what water use efficiency improvement can do.