This new book, Sustainable Micro Irrigation Design Systems for Agricultural Crops, brings together the best research for efficient micro irrigation methods for field crops, focusing on design methods and best practices. Covering a multitude of topics, the book presents research and studies on: Indigenous alternatives for use of saline and alkali wa

This new book, Principles and Practices of Sustainable Micro Irrigation, is the first in the new series on micro irrigation, which offers a vast amount of knowledge and techniques necessary to develop and manage a drip/trickle or micro irrigation system. Written by experienced scientists from various parts of the world, the chapters in this book offer basic principles, knowledge, and techniques of micro irrigation management, which are essential in designing, developing, and evaluating an agricultural irrigation management system. The methods and techniques have worldwide applicability to irrigation management in agriculture. The book includes coverage of many important topics in the field, including: • An historical review of micro irrigation • The current global status of the field and its potential • Basic principles and applications • New research on chemigation and fertigation • Technologies for specific crops, such as sugar cane • Irrigation software for micro irrigation design • Affordable and low-cost micro irrigation solutions for small farms and farms in developing countries • Micro irrigation design using Hydrocalc software This book is a must for those interested in irrigation planning and management, namely, researchers, scientists, educators, and students.

Initially associated with hi-tech irrigated agriculture, drip irrigation is now being used by a much wider range of farmers in emerging and developing countries. This book documents the enthusiasm, spread and use of drip irrigation systems by smallholders but also some disappointments and disillusion faced in the global South. It explores and explains under which conditions it works, for whom and with what effects. The book deals with drip irrigation 'behind the scenes', showcasing what largely remain 'untold stories'. Most research on drip irrigation use plot-level studies to demonstrate the technology’s ability to save water or improve efficiencies and use a narrow and rather prescriptive engineering or economic language. They tend to be grounded in a firm belief in the technology and focus on the identification of ways to improve or better realize its potential. The technology also figures prominently in poverty alleviation or agricultural modernization narratives, figuring as a tool to help smallholders become more innovative, entrepreneurial and business minded. Instead of focusing on its potential, this book looks at drip irrigation-in-use, making sense of what it does from the perspectives of the farmers who use it, and of the development workers and agencies, policymakers, private companies, local craftsmen, engineers, extension agents or researchers who engage with it for a diversity of reasons and to realize a multiplicity of objectives. While anchored in a sound engineering understanding of the design and operating principles of the technology, the book extends the analysis beyond engineering and hydraulics to understand drip irrigation as a sociotechnical phenomenon that not only changes the way water is supplied to crops but also transforms agricultural farming systems and even how society is organized. The book provides field evidence from a diversity of interdisciplinary case studies in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America, and South Asia, thus revealing some of the untold stories of drip irrigation.

This informative new book takes an interdisciplinary look at agricultural and food production and how new engineering practices can be used to enhance production. With contributions from international experts from India, Russia, China, Serbia, and USA, this book presents a selection of chapters on some of these emerging practices, focusing on soil and water conservation and management; agricultural processing engineering; water quality and management; emerging agricultural crops; renewable energy use in agriculture; and applications of nanotechnology in agriculture.

This volume sheds new light on the immense potential of medicinal plants for human health from different technological aspects. It presents new research on bioactive compounds in medicinal plants that provide health benefits, including those that have proven especially effective in treating and managing diabetes mellitus and hypertension. It looks at the medicinal properties, antioxidant capacity, and antimicrobial activity of plants and provides scientific evidence on the use of medicinal plants in the treatment of certain diseases. Many of the plants described in the chapters are easily accessible and are believed to be effective with fewer side effects in comparison to modern drugs in the treatment of different diseases.

This new volume addresses the global water crisis by presenting new ways to use irrigation water judiciously through innovative fertigation management. It looks at the research and review work done throughout the world on micro irrigation and the techno-economic feasibility of various fertigation irrigation water management systems. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective, the chapters look at using fertigation to increase the effectiveness of irrigation systems crop performance evaluation of various crops under fertigation and irrigation methods estimating levels of crop requirements scheduling of fertigation and irrigation new fertigation equipment and technology cost components of the various irrigation and fertigation systems

Management Strategies for Water Use Efficiency and Micro Irrigated Crops presents new research and technologies for making better use of water resources for agricultural purposes. The chapters focus on better management to improve allocation and irrigation water efficiency and look at performance factors as well. Chapters look at irrigation technology, environmental conditions, and scheduling of water application. One section of the book focuses on water management in the cultivation of sugarcane, a very important industrial crop used in many fields. Other sections are devoted to principles and challenging technologies, water use efficiency for drip-irrigated crops, performance of fertigated rice under micro irrigation, and evaluation of performance of drip-irrigated crops. This valuable book is a must for those struggling to find ways to address the need to maintain efficient crop production in the midst of water shortages. With chapters from hands-on experts in the field, the book will be an invaluable reference and guide to effective micro irrigation methods.