Drip Irrigation Handbook – Understanding the Basics

This book on the sustainable use of soils and water addressed a variety of issues related to the utopian desire for environmental sustainability and the deviations from this scene observed in the real world. Competing interests for land are frequently a factor in land degradation, especially where the adopted land uses do not conform with the land capability (the natural use of soil). The concerns of researchers about these matters are presented in the articles comprising this Special Issue book. Various approaches were used to assess the (im)balance between economic profit and environmental conservation in various regions, in addition to potential routes to bring landscapes back to a sustainable status being disclosed.

Precision irrigation is becoming a crucial management approach for environmentally and economically sustainable fruit tree production. The vast majority of fruit crops need irrigation supply as rainfall does not match crop water requirements (Stöckle et al., 2011; Snyder, 2017). In most cases of fruit crops cultivated in dry areas, rainfed agriculture is not sustainable and deficit irrigation (DI) is a reasonable strategy to improve water use efficiency. Fereres and Soriano (2007) highlighted the benefits of regulated DI as a strategy to reduce agricultural water use. The main purpose of regulated DI is to reduce irrigation at specific developmental stages of the crop with no or limited effects on yield. The use of DI in different phenological stages of fruit crops started in the 1980s by Chalmers et al. (1981, 1986).