Abstract
Global climate change is expected to cause progressively increased frequency and severity of drought events, which further seriously limit plant growth and crop yields. Increasing water use efficiency (WUE) and yield per unit rainfall are one of the most important challenges in dry land agriculture. Here, we reviewed the comprehensive technical strategies including conserving water to combine both increased agricultural productivity and resource conservation; enquiring into how crop plants respond to drought through morphological, physiological, and molecular modifications that occur in all plant organs; breeding for drought tolerance where there is a delineated stress environment and genotype × environment interactions are stable; effective conservation of rainfall and high efficiency of use. In addition, we discussed the preponderance of biological water-saving measures, which embraces improvements in WUE and drought tolerance, by genetic improvement and physiological regulation. Sustainable agriculture would be benefited from modern engineering such as biological engineering, conservation tillage, and breeding technologies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen D, Cao B, Wang S, Peng L, Deng X, Yin L, Zhang S (2016) Silicon moderated the K deficiency by improving the plant-water status in sorghum. Sci Rep 6:22882
Chen W, Zhang J, Deng X (2019) The spike weight contribution of the photosynthetic area above the upper internode in a winter wheat under different nitrogen and mulching regimes. Crop J 7(1):89–100
Chen W, Deng X, Eneji AE, Wang L, Xu Y, Cheng Y (2014) Dry-matter partitioning across parts of the wheat internode during the grain filling period as influenced by fertilizer and tillage treatments. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 13:1779–1812
Cheng X (2001) Relationship between agriculture, ecological deterioration, restoration and reconstruction in Loess Plateau areas of northwest China. Sci Agric Sin 34(1):84–90
Cui Z, Zhang H, Chen X, Zhang C, Ma W, Huang C, Zhang W, Mi G, Miao Y, Li X, Gao Q, Yang J, Wang Z, Ye Y, Guo S, Lu J, Huang J, Lv S, Sun Y, Liu Y, Peng X, Ren J, Li S, Deng X, Shi X, Zhang Q, Yang Z, Tang L, Wei C, Jia L, Zhang J, He M, Tong Y, Tang Q, Zhong X, Liu Z, Cao N, Kou C, Ying H, Yin Y, Jiao X, Zhang Q, Fan M, Jiang R, Zhang F, Dou Z (2018) Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers. Nature 555(7696):363–366
Deng X, Shan L, Inanaga S, Keren R (2003) Wheat yield improvement in semiarid area with eroded environment of china: strategies for effective conservation and efficient use of limited water. Outlook Agric 32(3):155–160
Deng X, Shan L, Zhang H, Turner NC (2006) Improving agricultural water use efficiency in arid and semiarid areas of China. Agric Water Manag 80:23–40
Gao HW, Li HW, Chen JD (1999) Research on sustainable mechanized dryland farming. Agric Res Arid Area 17(1):63–66
Huang J, Li Y, Fu C, Chen F, Fu Q, Dai A, Shinoda M, Ma Z, Guo W, Li Z, Zhang L, Liu Y, Yu H, He Y, Xie Y, Guan X, Ji M, Lin L, Wang S, Yan H, Wang G (2017) Dryland climate change: recent progress and challenges. Rev Geophys 55(3):719–778
Li LK (1999) A study on stubble retention, less tillage and straw mulching during the whole development period in wheat. Shaan Xi J Agr Sci 4:40–41
Liu P, Yin L, Wang S, Zhang M, Deng X, Zhang S, Tanaka K (2015) Enhanced root hydraulic conductance by aquaporin regulation accounts for silicon alleviated salt-induced osmotic stress in Sorghum bicolor L. Environ Exp Bot 111:42–51
Lou CH, Wang XC (2001) Physiological basis of yield formation in crops. China Agriculture Press, Beijing, pp 87–94 (155–162, 290–300)
Nicholson SE (2011) Dryland Climatology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Potter KN, Torbert HA, Jones OR, Matocha JE, Morrison JE, Unger PW (1998) Distribution and amount of soil organic C in long-term management systems in Texas. Soil Tillage Res 47:309–321
Prince S, Maltitz G, Zhang F, Byrne K, Driscoll C, Eshel G, Kust G, Martinez-Garza C, Metzger JP, Midgley G, Moreno Mateos D, Sghaier M, Thwin S, Bleeker A, Brown M, Cheng L, Dales K, Ellicot EA, Fernandes G, Reynolds J (2018) The IPBES assessment report on land degradation and restoration. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331564775_The_IPBES_assessment_report_on_land_degradation_and_restoration/link/5cc7145f299bf12097883c2e/download.
Qi L, Yin L, Cao B, Wang S, Zhang M, Deng X (2017) Effect of nitrogen deficiency on leaf lipid composition in different nitrogen deficiency tolerant wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars during seedling stage. Plant Physiol J 53(6):1039–1050
Safriel U, Adeel Z (2005) Dryland systems. In: EI-Kassas M, Ezcurra E (eds) Ecosystems and human well-being: current state and trends: findings of the condition and trends working group. Island Press, Washington, pp 623–662. http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=XF2015043162
Shan L, Deng X, Zhang S (2006) Advances in biological water-saving research: challenge and perspectives. Sci Found China 14(2):41–48
Shan L (2002) Development trend of dryland farming technologies. Sci Agr Sin 35(7):848–858
Shi Z, Wang S, Yin L, Zhang M, Deng X (2013) Tolerance of tobacco plans with OsMGD gene to low phosphorus stress. J Northwest AF Univ Nat Sci Ed 41(10):97–104
Squires VR, Tow PG (eds) (1991) Dryland farming: a systems approach. An analysis of dryland agriculture in Australia. Sydney Univ. Press, South Melbourne, pp 3–15 (24–31)
Steward BA, Robinson CA (1997) Are agroecosystem sustainable in semiarid regions? Adv Agron 60:191–228
United Nations (2015) Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. general assembley 70 session. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf.
Wang L, Wang S, Chen W, Li H, Deng X (2017) Physiological mechanisms contributing to increased water-use efficiency in winter wheat under organic fertilization. PLoS ONE 12(6):6–29
Wang S, Uddin MI, Tanaka K, Yin L, Shi Z, Qi Y, Mano JI, Matsui K, Shimomura N, Sakaki T, Deng X, Zhang S (2014) Maintenance of chloroplast structure and function by overexpression of the OsMGD gene leads to enhanced salt tolerance in tobacco. Plant Physiol 165(3):1144–1155
White RP, Nackoney J (2003) Drylands, people, and ecosystem goods and services: a web-based geospatial analysis. World Resources Institute (Available at: https://pdf.wri.org/drylands. pdf accessed on 30/01/2012).
Zhang QY (2001) Promulgate results of exploring sand dust devil scientific survey. Geogr Teach 7:42–42
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the 111 Project of the Ministry of Education, China (No. B12007), Fundamental Research Funds for the Northwest A&F University (No. 2452017189), the Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 2452018005), and the CAS “Light of West China” Program (No. XAB2017B02).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, GX., Xu, BC., Yin, LN. et al. Dryland agricultural environment and sustainable productivity. Plant Biotechnol Rep 14, 169–176 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-020-00613-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-020-00613-w