IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v305y2024ics0378377424004335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimizing sowing date to mitigate loss of growing degree days and enhance crop water productivity of groundwater-irrigated spring maize

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Lifeng
  • Han, Xinlong
  • Yang, Qiliang
  • Feng, Hao
  • Siddique, Kadambot H.M.

Abstract

Groundwater irrigation (GWI) decreases soil temperature and increases crop growth duration and water consumption. Optimizing sowing dates offers a cost-effective solution to mitigate these effects. This study evaluated five sowing date treatments for spring maize: GWI on April 20 (GW420), April 25 (GW425), April 30 (GW430), May 5 (GW505), and May 10 (GW510), with surface water irrigation (SWI) on April 20 (SW420) as the control. The evaluated parameters included soil temperature at 5 cm depth (T5), soil-temperature-calculated growing degree days (GDDs), actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc-act), leaf area index (LAI), grain filling, grain yield, and crop water productivity (WPc). GW420 decreased daily maximum T5 by 1.8°C (P<0.05) and daily average GDDs accumulation by 5.9 % and increased the growth duration by 7.8 d and ETc-act by 33.2 mm compared to SW420. GW420 also delayed LAI growth and decreased the weight of maximum grain filling rate (Wmax) and maximum grain filling rate (Gmax), reducing mean LAI (LAIave) by 8.7 %, grain yield by 6.7 %, and WPc by 10.2 % (P<0.05). Late sowing compensated for GDDs loss in the GWI treatments, with the highest daily average GDDs accumulation observed in GW505 and GW510 (21.3°C d–1), followed by SW420 and GW430 (20.2–20.3°C d–1), and the lowest in GW420 and GW425 (19.1–19.4°C d–1). Late sowing also shortened growth duration and decreased ETc-act, with GW510 showing a 13.9 d shorter growth duration and GW425, GW430, GW505, and GW510 exhibiting 30.6, 36.0, 57.6, and 70.2 mm lower ETc-act, respectively, than GW420. Moderately late sowing (GW430) enhanced Gmax and maintained the active grain filling period (Tagp). Late sowing increased WPc by 7.9 %, 16.8 %, 17.4 %, and 17.2 % in GW425, GW430, GW505, and GW510 (P<0.05), respectively, compared to GW420. While the grain yields of GW430 and SW420 did not significantly differ, GW430 had a higher WPc than SW420, indicating that moderately late sowing fully compensated for the decline in grain yield and WPc of groundwater-irrigated maize. Entropy-TOPSIS analysis revealed that GW430 is the optimal sowing date for groundwater-irrigated maize in arid regions of northwest China, offering a cost-effective method to mitigate GWI-induced GDDs loss and enhance WPc.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Lifeng & Han, Xinlong & Yang, Qiliang & Feng, Hao & Siddique, Kadambot H.M., 2024. "Optimizing sowing date to mitigate loss of growing degree days and enhance crop water productivity of groundwater-irrigated spring maize," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:305:y:2024:i:c:s0378377424004335
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2024.109097
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377424004335
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2024.109097?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esha Zaveri & David Lobell, 2019. "The role of irrigation in changing wheat yields and heat sensitivity in India," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Wen, Yue & Wu, Xiaodi & Liu, Jian & Zhang, Jinzhu & Song, Libing & Zhu, Yan & Li, Wenhao & Wang, Zhenhua, 2023. "Effects of drip irrigation timing and water temperature on soil conditions, cotton phenological period, and fiber quality under plastic film mulching," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    3. Nandi, R. & Mukherjee, S. & Bandyopadhyay, P.K. & Saha, M. & Singh, K.C. & Ghatak, P. & Kundu, A. & Saha, S. & Nath, R. & Chakraborti, P., 2023. "Assessment and mitigation of soil water stress of rainfed lentil (Lens culinaries Medik) through sowing time, tillage and potassic fertilization disparities," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    4. Zunfu Lv & Feifei Li & Guoquan Lu, 2020. "Adjusting sowing date and cultivar shift improve maize adaption to climate change in China," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 87-106, January.
    5. Zhou, Lifeng & Feng, Hao & Zhao, Ying & Qi, Zhijuan & Zhang, Tibin & He, Jianqiang & Dyck, Miles, 2017. "Drip irrigation lateral spacing and mulching affects the wetting pattern, shoot-root regulation, and yield of maize in a sand-layered soil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 114-123.
    6. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & López-Urrea, R. & Hunsaker, D.J. & Mota, M. & Mohammadi Shad, Z., 2021. "Standard single and basal crop coefficients for vegetable crops, an update of FAO56 crop water requirements approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    7. Liu, Xiaogang & Peng, Youliang & Yang, Qiliang & Wang, Xiukang & Cui, Ningbo, 2021. "Determining optimal deficit irrigation and fertilization to increase mango yield, quality, and WUE in a dry hot environment based on TOPSIS," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gheysari, Mahdi & Pirnajmedin, Fatemeh & Movahedrad, Hamid & Majidi, Mohammad Mahdi & Zareian, Mohammad Javad, 2021. "Crop yield and irrigation water productivity of silage maize under two water stress strategies in semi-arid environment: Two different pot and field experiments," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    2. Yi-Chun Ko & Shinsuke Uchida & Akira Hibiki, 2024. "Substitution of Human and Physical Capitals in Farm Adaptation to Extreme Temperatures: Evidence from Corn Yields in US," TUPD Discussion Papers 49, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    3. Koffi Djaman & Suat Irmak & Komlan Koudahe & Samuel Allen, 2021. "Irrigation Management in Potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) Production: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Darouich, Hanaa & Karfoul, Razan & Ramos, Tiago B. & Moustafa, Ali & Shaheen, Baraa & Pereira, Luis S., 2021. "Crop water requirements and crop coefficients for jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) using the SIMDualKc model and assessing irrigation strategies for the Syrian Akkar region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    5. Xiaopei Tang & Haijun Liu & Li Yang & Lun Li & Jie Chang, 2022. "Energy Balance, Microclimate, and Crop Evapotranspiration of Winter Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) under Sprinkler Irrigation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Coelho, Eugênio Ferreira & Lima, Lenilson Wisner Ferreira & Stringam, Blair & de Matos, Aristoteles Pires & Santos, Dionei Lima & Reinhardt, Domingo Haroldo & de Melo Velame, Lucas & dos Santos, Carlo, 2024. "Water productivity in pineapple (Ananas comosus) cultivation using plastic film to reduce evaporation and percolation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    7. Wen, Shenglin & Cui, Ningbo & Wang, Yaosheng & Gong, Daozhi & Xing, Liwen & Wu, Zongjun & Zhang, Yixuan & Zhao, Long & Fan, Junliang & Wang, Zhihui, 2024. "Optimizing deficit drip irrigation to improve yield,quality, and water productivity of apple in Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    8. Xiaolin Yang & Jinran Xiong & Taisheng Du & Xiaotang Ju & Yantai Gan & Sien Li & Longlong Xia & Yanjun Shen & Steven Pacenka & Tammo S. Steenhuis & Kadambot H. M. Siddique & Shaozhong Kang & Klaus But, 2024. "Diversifying crop rotation increases food production, reduces net greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil health," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Zou, Haiyang & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Fucang & Xiang, Youzhen & Wu, Lifeng & Yan, Shicheng, 2020. "Optimization of drip irrigation and fertilization regimes for high grain yield, crop water productivity and economic benefits of spring maize in Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    10. Ebtessam A. Youssef & Marwa M. Abdelbaset & Osama M. Dewedar & José Miguel Molina-Martínez & Ahmed F. El-Shafie, 2023. "Crop Coefficient Estimation and Effect of Abscisic Acid on Red Cabbage Plants ( Brassica oleracea var. Capitata) under Water-Stress Conditions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Hunsaker, D.J. & López-Urrea, R. & Mohammadi Shad, Z., 2021. "Standard single and basal crop coefficients for field crops. Updates and advances to the FAO56 crop water requirements method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    12. Bhaskar Jyoti Neog, 2022. "Temperature shocks and rural labour markets: evidence from India," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Zhang, Xianbo & Yang, Hui & Du, Taisheng, 2025. "Study of regulated deficit irrigation regime based on individual fruit weight and quality response to water deficit duration: A case study in tomato," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    14. Hao, Kun & Zhang, Wei & Zhu, Shijiang & Peng, Youliang & Zhong, Yun & Jie, Feilong & Liu, Lihua & Gao, Yalin & Zhou, Lin & Liu, Chuang & Shen, Fangyuan, 2025. "Alternate partial root-zone irrigation combined with nitrogen fertilizer: An adaptive surge root irrigation and nitrogen strategy to improve apple yield, water-nitrogen use efficiency and fruit qualit," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    15. Su, Han & Sun, Hongyong & Dong, Xinliang & Chen, Pei & Zhang, Xuejia & Tian, Liu & Liu, Xiaojing & Wang, Jintao, 2021. "Did manure improve saline water irrigation threshold of winter wheat? A 3-year field investigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    16. Egerer, Sabine & Puente, Andrea Fajardo & Peichl, Michael & Rakovec, Oldrich & Samaniego, Luis & Schneider, Uwe A., 2023. "Limited potential of irrigation to prevent potato yield losses in Germany under climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    17. Keabetswe, Larona & He, Yiyin & Li, Chao & Zhou, Zhenjiang, 2024. "Estimating actual crop evapotranspiration by using satellite images coupled with hybrid deep learning-based models in potato fields," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    18. Zhao, Xiaole & Mak-Mensah, Erastus & Zhao, Wucheng & Wang, Qi & Zhou, Xujiao & Zhang, Dengkui & Zhu, Jinhui & Qi, Wenjia & Liu, Qinglin & Li, Xiaoling & Li, Xuchun & Liu, Bing, 2024. "Optimized ridge-furrow technology with biochar amendment for alfalfa yield enhancement and soil erosion reduction based on a structural equation model on sloping land," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    19. Leontina Lipan & Aarón A. Carbonell-Pedro & Belén Cárceles Rodríguez & Víctor Hugo Durán-Zuazo & Dionisio Franco Tarifa & Iván Francisco García-Tejero & Baltasar Gálvez Ruiz & Simón Cuadros Tavira & R, 2021. "Can Sustained Deficit Irrigation Save Water and Meet the Quality Characteristics of Mango?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-16, May.
    20. Shoumitro Chatterjee & Rohit Lamba & Esha D. Zaveri, 2024. "The role of farm subsidies in changing India’s water footprint," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:305:y:2024:i:c:s0378377424004335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.