Lancaster irrigation research saves water and boosts crop yields

Since agriculture uses more than 70% of global freshwater supplies, more sustainable water use is vital to enhance water and food security. Lancaster’s research on root-to-shoot plant hormone signalling pioneered novel irrigation practices and demonstrated microbial products that deliver ‘more crop per drop’.

Three decades of research by Professors Dodd and Davies into root-to-shoot signalling has led to new irrigation techniques and microbial products. They have worked with smallholders and intensive agricultural enterprises to enhance farmer uptake of these techniques in some of the most water-scarce regions of the world. Across multiple crops, these techniques reduce water use (compared to conventional deficit irrigation) and increase yield, and have been adopted worldwide including in:

• China – Partial Root Drying (PRD) has been adopted by more than 1,200 Chinese farmers in Gansu Province for wheat and maize crops, decreasing crop water use and labour, with yields between 17% and 30% greater than with conventional furrow irrigation. Applying this technique in the Minqin Oasis has helped restore lake levels by decreasing excessive groundwater use. More than 100,000 Chinese rice farmers now use a form of deficit irrigation by allowing flooded fields to periodically dry out across 5.4 million hectares in Jiangsu Province. This technique has decreased water use between 23% and 42%, and increased yields between 6% and 15%.
• California – the processing tomato industry extensively adopted a form of PRD (alternate furrow irrigation, AFI) in water-scarce years such as 2016. It consistently maintained fresh yields across tomato cultivars and environmental conditions with at least 25% lower irrigation volumes than those commonly applied with conventional irrigation.
• Iran - local citrus farmers manage water scarcity and improve profitability by enhancing crop quality using PRD. Guidance documents on the application of AFI have been published in multiple languages, including Farsi by the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture
• India - sales and use of microbial products that alter plant hormone signalling reached close to 50 million units in 2020, with 20,000 hectares being inoculated annually, with yield increases ranging from 5% to 30%.
• Pakistan - compared to conventional fertilisers, microbial-augmented products increased yields by 25% to 30% in sugarcane, 15% to 20% in potato and 10% to 15% in cereals.
  Lancaster's research captured the attention of biotechnologists worldwide, who have isolated their own microorganisms to develop specific products. Companies have developed and supplied millions of doses of these biofertilisers to farmers in India, Pakistan and Russia, allowing farmers to produce more food in dry environments