Mississippi State scientists are building on two decades of irrigation research to identify production practices that help growers save water while improving crop yields.
Dave Spencer, plant and soil sciences associate professor and scientist in the university’s Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute, is studying how tillage, row spacing, fertility management and irrigation practices affect crop productivity and water use at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s Black Belt Branch in Brooksville.
This project builds on more than 20 years of irrigation research at the university’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville where Drew Gholson, plant and soil sciences associate professor and MAFES scientist, has studied how conservation practices affect soil moisture, irrigation demand and water-use efficiency in cotton production. Findings from the Stoneville study, recently published in Agricultural Water Management, showed cover crops improved water-use efficiency in cotton.
The Brooksville project expands that work by evaluating additional management practices in cotton, corn and soybeans across a wider range of soil types, weather conditions and production environments to maintain or improve profitability while conserving resources.
Source : msstate.edu