Increasing Water Productivity through Deficit Irrigation

Deficit irrigation (DI) is a watering strategy that can be applied by different types of irrigation application methods with thorough understanding of the yield response to water (crop sensitivity to drought stress). Deficit (or regulated deficit) irrigation is one way of maximizing crop productivity per unit of irrigation water applied as the saved water can be used to irrigate more area. Experiments showed that any yield reduction per unit of land will be insignificant compared with the overall increased in crop productivity by applying the strategy of deficit irrigation. In regions where water resources are restrictive, it can be more profitable for a farmer to maximize crop water productivity instead of maximizing the crop yield per unit of land. It may be considered as one of the strategies for ensuring food security in water scarce regions.

The paper describes briefly the concept of deficit irrigation (DI), constraints and illustrates that deficit irrigation helps in increasing the crop water productivity.