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Global irrigation contribution to wheat and maize yield

Wang, Xuhui ; Müller, Christoph ; Elliot, Joshua ; Mueller, Nathaniel D. ; Ciais, Philippe ; Jägermeyr, Jonas ; Gerber, James ; Dumas, Patrice ; Wang, Chenzhi and Yang, Hui , et al. (2021) In Nature Communications 12(1).
Abstract

Irrigation is the largest sector of human water use and an important option for increasing crop production and reducing drought impacts. However, the potential for irrigation to contribute to global crop yields remains uncertain. Here, we quantify this contribution for wheat and maize at global scale by developing a Bayesian framework integrating empirical estimates and gridded global crop models on new maps of the relative difference between attainable rainfed and irrigated yield (ΔY). At global scale, ΔY is 34 ± 9% for wheat and 22 ± 13% for maize, with large spatial differences driven more by patterns of precipitation than that of evaporative demand. Comparing irrigation demands with renewable water supply, we find 30–47% of... (More)

Irrigation is the largest sector of human water use and an important option for increasing crop production and reducing drought impacts. However, the potential for irrigation to contribute to global crop yields remains uncertain. Here, we quantify this contribution for wheat and maize at global scale by developing a Bayesian framework integrating empirical estimates and gridded global crop models on new maps of the relative difference between attainable rainfed and irrigated yield (ΔY). At global scale, ΔY is 34 ± 9% for wheat and 22 ± 13% for maize, with large spatial differences driven more by patterns of precipitation than that of evaporative demand. Comparing irrigation demands with renewable water supply, we find 30–47% of contemporary rainfed agriculture of wheat and maize cannot achieve yield gap closure utilizing current river discharge, unless more water diversion projects are set in place, putting into question the potential of irrigation to mitigate climate change impacts.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Communications
volume
12
issue
1
article number
1235
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85101337711
  • pmid:33623028
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-021-21498-5
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e809ae7e-c2a1-4d3b-8de6-ef87b8f97357
date added to LUP
2021-03-08 10:29:16
date last changed
2024-04-18 03:49:53
@article{e809ae7e-c2a1-4d3b-8de6-ef87b8f97357,
  abstract     = {{<p>Irrigation is the largest sector of human water use and an important option for increasing crop production and reducing drought impacts. However, the potential for irrigation to contribute to global crop yields remains uncertain. Here, we quantify this contribution for wheat and maize at global scale by developing a Bayesian framework integrating empirical estimates and gridded global crop models on new maps of the relative difference between attainable rainfed and irrigated yield (ΔY). At global scale, ΔY is 34 ± 9% for wheat and 22 ± 13% for maize, with large spatial differences driven more by patterns of precipitation than that of evaporative demand. Comparing irrigation demands with renewable water supply, we find 30–47% of contemporary rainfed agriculture of wheat and maize cannot achieve yield gap closure utilizing current river discharge, unless more water diversion projects are set in place, putting into question the potential of irrigation to mitigate climate change impacts.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wang, Xuhui and Müller, Christoph and Elliot, Joshua and Mueller, Nathaniel D. and Ciais, Philippe and Jägermeyr, Jonas and Gerber, James and Dumas, Patrice and Wang, Chenzhi and Yang, Hui and Li, Laurent and Deryng, Delphine and Folberth, Christian and Liu, Wenfeng and Makowski, David and Olin, Stefan and Pugh, Thomas A.M. and Reddy, Ashwan and Schmid, Erwin and Jeong, Sujong and Zhou, Feng and Piao, Shilong}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Global irrigation contribution to wheat and maize yield}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21498-5}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-021-21498-5}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}