Large areas of crops are now grown under water-stressed conditions on non-irrigated and under limited irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions. In the future, this area of water-stressed crops will increase as a result of increasing competition from other water users, declining ground water levels, and the bringing into production of fragile lands that have low water-holding capacity, such as sandy desert soil. Consequently, strategies and practices to increase total yields and efficient water use must be improved. Following the introductory material and keynotes, this book is divided into four parts. Part I covers soil water management, Part II deals with model approaches to evaluate the soil-water-atmosphere interactions, Part III treats water saving techniques through soil conditioning, and Part IV discusses case studies of water management systems. "Water Saving Techniques for Plant Growth" thus represents a general account of interest and activities of the various scientific disciplines which are concerned in deseert encroachment as part of global change.
Desert encroachment as part of the global change, R. Paepe; natural aridification and man-made desertification, N. Petit-Maire. Part 1 Soil water management: principles of soil water management, W.R. Gardner; water conservation in arid zones, H. Bouwer; irrigation under limited water availability - water saving techniques, L.S. Pereira and J.L. Teixeira. Part 2 Model A approaches to evaluate the soil-water-atmosphere interactions: forecasting soil-water-atmosphere interactions in arid regions, R.A. Feddes and W.G.M. Bastiaanssen; microclimat, eau et production, A. Perrier. Part 3 Water saving techniques through soil conditioning: managing water in stressed environments, H.J.W. Verplancke; water saving for rainfed crop production in the tropics through surface soil conditioning, I. Pia Sentis; synthetic polymers as soil conditioners - 35 years of experimentation, M.F. De Boodt. Part 4 Case studies of water management systems: soil management for efficient water use under main cropping systems in arid and semi-arid areas of Turkey, N. Munsuz et al; water saving techniques for crop production in rainfed areas of Turkey, M.S. Yesilsoy; the "buried stones pocket" - a new irrigation technique for tree plantations in arid regions, B. Chahbani; techniques to promote plant growth applied to urban sites, J.W. Bakker; integrated use of marginal water resources in arid and semi-arid zones, A. Issar and E. Adar.