Preface

Chapter 8 **Management of Plant Disease Epidemics with Irrigation**

Chapter 9 **Paddy Fields as Artificial and Temporal Wetland 143**

Chapter 10 **Traditional Water Meadows: A Sustainable Management Type**

Adalberto C. Café-Filho, Carlos Alberto Lopes and Maurício Rossato

Constanze Buhk, Jens Schirmel, Gerlach Rebekka and Oliver Frör

**Practices 123**

**VI** Contents

Tsugihiro Watanabe

**for the Future? 159**

Agroecosystem is defined as an interrelated functional unit of (a)biotic components (crops, livestock, microbes, soil particles/solutions/gases) with the principal aim of food production, underpinned either by natural precipitations (rain-fed agriculture) and/or artificially added water (irrigated agriculture). Rain-fed agroecosystems are experiencing more frequent and pronounced water imbalances such as water deficit (stress) as a consequence of global cli‐ mate change. Besides the substantial reduction in yield and quality, water stress in arable agricultural areas often additionally underpins numerous other environmental constraints such as salinization, desertification, soil organic matter depletion, compaction, etc. Thus, en‐ suring a stable and balanced water relationship in the soil/crop route is important for the sustainability of the whole (agro)ecosystem.

Implementation of irrigation practice in agriculture is one of the most effective approaches to overcome crop water stress and ensure stable and quality food production. Irrigated crop‐ ping is conducted on about 20% of cultivated land areas and generates about 40% of global food production. However, due to increasing demands and continuous competition for high-quality water resources in the agricultural/industrial/domestic triangle, it is unrealistic to expect further expansion of agricultural irrigation. Adaptations to modern challenges of irrigated cropping (e.g., more frequent droughts, global warming) aim to improve water use efficiency, and are therefore more likely.

This book presents a collection of 10 chapters focused of irrigation planning, designing and management, irrigation systems, and improvement of water use efficiency across the irrigated agroecosystems. The book is thus mostly dedicated to all those scientists, students, and pro‐ fessionals dealing with irrigated agriculture and sustainable natural (principally water and soil) resource management, as well to those who can find an interest in elaborated subtopics.

The editor is grateful to all contributors for their collaboration, notably on considerations and acceptance of all suggestions and comments. Finally, great thanks go to Ms. Romina Skomersic from the publishing service office on her support and help.

> **Prof. Gabrijel Ondrasek** University of Zagreb, Croatia

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Irrigation after Millennia - Still**

**Introductory Chapter: Irrigation after Millennia - Still** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81189

**One of the Most Effective Strategies for Sustainable**

**One of the Most Effective Strategies for Sustainable** 

Gabrijel Ondrasek

**1. Introduction**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Gabrijel OndrasekAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81189

security of global food production.

**Management of Water Footprint in Agricultural Crops**

Water is an essential component of the Earth's (agro) ecosystems with direct influence on global food production. As a renewable resource, water fluctuates over its phases in the global water cycle and replenishes the root zones (rhizospheres) of cultivated croplands in agroecosystems. Agroecosystem can be defined as a very complex functional unit of biotic (agricultural crops/varieties, animal breeds, uncultivated weeds and accompanied macro/micro biota) and abiotic (minerals, organics, fluids, gasses, water) components with the primary goal of food/feed production. Agroecosystems orientated to cultivated crop production have the major contribution in human food supply given that about 80% of human nutrition represent plant-derived foodstuffs (cereals, vegetables, fruits), while the rest are those of animal origin. Therefore, agroecosystems are the world's principal food supplier, as well as the predominant user of renewable freshwater (*blue water*) resources, consuming globally per year ~7 trillion m3 of water, either in rain-fed (~60%) or irrigated (~40%) conditions. Thus, water resources and their management in agroecosystems are of crucial importance for stability and

However, from the last several decades, water resources exploited in (agro) ecosystems have been started to be overexposed to different human-induced pressures (pollution by modern in/organic contaminants) and non-sustainable management practices (uncontrolled water abstractions, lacking of purification, recycling and/or reusing of *grey waters*). Such pressures accompanied with ongoing global climate changes and processes (more frequent and intensive droughts, deruralisation, human growth in water-stressed areas) imbalance water cycling

and reduce availability of fresh hydro-resources for increased food demands.

**Management of Water Footprint in Agricultural Crops**

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

#### **Introductory Chapter: Irrigation after Millennia - Still One of the Most Effective Strategies for Sustainable Management of Water Footprint in Agricultural Crops Introductory Chapter: Irrigation after Millennia - Still One of the Most Effective Strategies for Sustainable Management of Water Footprint in Agricultural Crops**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81189

Gabrijel Ondrasek

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Gabrijel OndrasekAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81189
