Sustainable water saving: new concept of modern agricultural water saving, starting from development of Xinjiang's agricultural irrigation over the last 50 years

✍ Scribed by Zhong Ruisen; Dong Xinguang; Ma Yingjie

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 99 KB
• Volume: 58
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1531-0353
• DOI: 10.1002/ird.414

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This paper analyses first the state of water land exploitation and water saving irrigation in Xinjiang over the last 50 years. A fairly severe situation of water resources utilization exists in Xinjiang, and so agricultural water saving provides an important way of solving the problem. Taking a comprehensive view of development of agricultural irrigation in Xinjiang over the last 50 years, surface irrigation and new high water‐saving technologies have both been present. Despite these two kinds of irrigation technologies, it is difficult to realize the effect of water saving and increasing production using the former, which is an engineering water‐saving mode using a canal anti‐seepage technique. To some degree, it inhibits ecological water use. The latter, which is an agronomic water‐saving mode laying emphasis on crop growth mechanisms, can realize the effect of water saving and increasing production. But, on the other hand, it is unable to improve soil characteristics. On the contrary, it might even aggravate soil salinization. Therefore, both engineering water saving and agronomic water saving must reconsider the sustainability of water saving. Can it realize reasonable water resources allocation of the whole watershed? Can it realize sustainable utilization of water resources in the whole watershed? This paper advances a new concept of modern agricultural water saving – sustainable water saving – which is different from real water saving. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.