Green water (GW), one of the major components of water footprint, is vital to current and future food security, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, e.g., North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its critical role for rainfed agriculture, green water storage (soil moisture) and flow (soil evaporation and plant transpiration) did not receive the needed attention on how to optimize these resources that is the lifelines of millions of people. Green water storage and flow are strongly impacted by the soil type and health (e.g., organic content) and management practices (e.g., tillage and conservation practices). Effective rainfall (ER), the portion of rain that infiltrates the soil and used by the crop, is an indicator of the GW level in a given region. In this study, we used the irrigation water management software, IManSys, to study the impact of organic matter (OM) level (0-8%) and tillage type (no-till and conventional tillage) on GW in citrus production across arid and semi-arid parts of the Mediterranean region.  ER responded positively to increases of OM level in all soil types and so did for finer textured soils (silt loamy) as compared to coarse texture soils (sandy) due to increase in infiltration and reduction in runoff and leaching. Similarly, no-till has a similar impact as OM. Further analysis is needed to quantify these practices' impact on the crop yield and economic return of citrus and other crops under the study region and other environments.

Potential impact of management practices on green water under arid and semi-arid conditions

ACS Fall 2021

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