Assessment of Water Productivity Enhancement and Sustainability Potential of Different Resource Conservation Technologies: A Review in the Context of Pakistan

Muhammad Adnan Shahid, Junaid Nawaz Chauhdary, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Uzair Qamar and Abdul Shabbir
Additional contact information
Muhammad Adnan Shahid: Department of Irrigation and Drainage, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Junaid Nawaz Chauhdary: Water Management Research Centre, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Muhammad Usman: Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Earth Sciences and Geography, Martin Luther University Halle, 06886 Halle (Saale), Germany
Muhammad Uzair Qamar: Department of Irrigation and Drainage, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Abdul Shabbir: Department of Irrigation and Drainage, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: Agriculture is the major economic sector in Asian countries and the majority of their population depends on it. In addition to the largest irrigation system in the Indus basin, Pakistan is suffering from water shortages that are affecting the overall crop production of the country. Different resource conservation technologies (RCTs) such as precision land leveling (PLL), raised bed planting (RBP), and different high-efficiency irrigation systems (HEISs) can be opted for better water productivity. In this study, the potential of these RCTs has been explored to enhance production and save irrigation water through their sustainable adoption. Based on studies by different researchers, water savings up to 47% and yield increases up to 35% have been reported under PLL, while water savings up to 50% and about 10–33% yield increases were observed under RBP. Similarly, under different HEISs, water savings up to 80% and yield increases up to 53% have been reported compared with crops sown under conventional farming. Based on the findings of the researchers regarding RCTs, these have been proved as progressive sowing techniques for better productivity under the limited available water scenario. The detailed review in this paper concludes that RCTs resulting in the improvement of gravity irrigation methods, viz., PLL and RBP, have a great potential of adoption and water productivity improvement at the regional scale in developing countries such as Pakistan, while high-cost HEISs can also be promoted at limited scale among progressive farmers for high-value agriculture.

Keywords: resource conservation practices; sustainable agriculture; precision land leveling (PLL); raised bed planting (RBP); high-efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/1058/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/1058/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:7:p:1058-:d:866550

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().