Crop yield response to water - Cra

Lead AuthorsElias Fereres(University of Cordoba andIAS-CSIC, Cordoba, Spain),David A. Goldhamer(formerly University of California,Davis, USA; currentlyCooperative Extension Emeritus),Victor O. Sadras(SARDI Waite Campus,Australia)Contributing AuthorsMartin Smith(formerly FAO, Land and WaterDivision, Rome, Italy)Jordi Marsal(IRTA, Lleida, Spain),Joan Girona(IRTA, Lleida, Spain),Amos Naor(GRI, University of Haifa, andMigal - Galilee TechnologyCenter, Israel),Riccardo Gucci(University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy),Angelo Caliandro(University of Bari, Italy),Carmen Ruz(IAS-CSIC, Cordoba, Spain)ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSCristos Xiloyannis(Università degli studi dellaBasilicata, Potenza, Italy)Elias Fereres, Joan Gironaand Jordi Marsal arethankful to the Ministry ofEducation of Spain for theCONSOLIDER-RIDECO grant.4. Yield response to waterof fruit trees and vines:guidelinesIntroduction and BackgroundOrchards and vineyards are long-term, costly investments. Thedevelopment of plantations must avoid two critical issues: a) poorsoil conditions (e.g. too shallow, poor drainage, high salinity); and b)uncertainty in irrigation water supply. Limiting soil conditions are a threat tothe long-term viability of plantations, and the severe water deficits imposedby lack of irrigation water not only would reduce current year yields but couldnegatively affect production in subsequent years, enhance alternate bearingand damage or kill trees, either directly or indirectly. In perennial plantations,growers need to keep the risks to the minimum, thus orchards and vineyardstraditionally have been developed under good environmental conditions.However, due to water scarcity, orchards and vineyards are subjected toperiodic droughts and, more recently, many orchards and vineyards have beenplanted in situations where the soil and/or the water may be limiting. This iswhy it is important to understand the responses of orchards and vineyards tovariations in water supply so as to manage water judiciously.Tree crops and vines have more complex behaviour and have been lessstudied than the major annual crops. Therefore, it is not possible at thistime to build a simple and robust dynamic simulation model of the yieldresponse to water, as AquaCrop is for the herbaceous crops in Chapter 3.Alternatively, we provide first an overview of the generalized responsesto water supply of tree crops and vines, followed by Sections on each cropthat delineate the specific responses of each major tree and vine crop,for which there is sufficient information, grown primarily in temperateand subtropical climates. The material presented focuses on the relevantissues related to orchard and vineyard development in relation to: a)water requirements; b) responses to water deficits; c) irrigation scheduling246crop yield response to water