Evaluation of management strategies for improving water use efficiency of wheat under saline conditions

On-farm management practices with the aim of improving Water Use Efficiency (WUE) are among the practical ways of overcoming the water scarcity problem. This study aims to investigate ways of implementing agricultural water management in Abarkouh region, Yazd province, which mainly deals with problems such as water scarcity and salinity of soil and water resources. To this end, the resulting scientific and practical solutions of the research were implemented on two separate wheat fields. The proposed methods include alternative irrigation techniques, land leveling, irrigation scheduling (intervals and volumes), seed density and fertilization. The total applied water during a full agricultural season, grain yield and water use efficiency index (the ratio of the product to the water consumed) were determined and eventually compared with the control treatment (agricultural land). The results indicated that the precise application of the proposed techniques can result in up to 15% decrease in the irrigation time and 20% increase in WUE. This could be a practical step towards ensuring sustainable agricultural production in spite of water scarcity problems, especially in rural areas, and conserving agricultural inputs, especially water.