Irrigation Archives

2025 Colombia

Production systems of Hass avocado among small-scale Colombian farmers: assessment and strategies for strengthening sustainable integration into export markets

Authors: Forero Á, Cruz JC and Muñoz-Camargo C

Introduction: Colombia’s Hass avocado sector has grown rapidly, yet smallholders face unequal access to technology, certification, and export channels. Understanding the determinants of sustainable practice adoption is key to inclusive competitiveness and compliance with international standards.Methods: We analyzed a cross-sectional survey of n = 3,867 small-scale Hass avocado producers across 18 departments (2023–2024). Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were followed by four

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2025 Chile

Avocado drought stress alleviation through different soil amendments

Authors: Beyá-Marshall, Victor; Moraga, Felipe; Galaz, Bastián; Kremer, Cristián; Fichet, Thomas; Seguel, Oscar

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Under the uncertain scenario of water availability for irrigation, plants are often exposed to drought periods, which can negatively impact their vegetative growth and yield potential. To address this issue, various soil amendments including inorganic, organic, and biological treatments, have been investigated as solutions for mitigating water stress. However, comparative studies of different amendments are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of various soil amendments

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2023 Chile, Florida, South Africa

Single and basal crop coefficients for estimation of water use of tree and vine woody crops with consideration of fraction of ground cover, height, and training system for Mediterranean and warm temperate fruit and leaf crops

Authors: Pereira, L. S.,; Paredes, Paula; Oliveira, C. M.; Montoya, Francisco; López-Urrea, Ramón; Salman

This paper reviews the research on the FAO56 single and basal crop coefficients of fruit trees and vines performed over the past twenty-five years and focus on Mediterranean and warm temperate trees and vines. Two companion papers (López-Urrea et al., (2023) Single and basal crop coefficients for estimation of water use of tree and vine woody crops with consideration of fraction of ground cover, height, and training system for temperate climate fruit crops. Irrig Sci (submitted); Paredes et al. (2023) Single and basal crop coefficients for estimation of water use of tree and vine woody crops with consideration of fraction of ground cover, height, and training system for tropical and subtropical fruit crops. Irrig Sci (submitted)) are dedicated, respectively, to Temperate and to Tropical and Subtropical trees and vines. The main objective of the paper is to update available information on single (Kc) and basal (Kcb) standard crop coefficients, and to provide for updating and completing the FAO56 tabulated Kc and Kcb. The Kc is the ratio between non-stressed crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and the grass reference evapotranspiration (ETₒ), while Kcb is the ratio between crop transpiration (Tc) and ETₒ. The selection and analysis of the literature were performed considering only studies that adhere to the FAO56 method, thus computing ETₒ with the FAO Penman–Monteith ETₒ equation, the ASCE grass ETₒ, or another equation that could be properly related with the former, and ETc, or Tc, was obtained using properly accurate field measurements on crops under pristine or eustress conditions. The crops considered refer to Mediterranean (grapes and olive) and warm temperate areas (avocado, citrus, persimmon, loquat, and tea) fruit and leaf crops. Papers satisfying the above conditions were selected to provide for standard Kc and Kcb data. Preferably, studies should report on the crop cultivar and rootstock, planting density or plant spacing, fraction of ground cover (fc), crop height (h), crop age and training systems. Additional information was collected on pruning and irrigation method and strategy. The ranges of reported Kc and Kcb values were grouped according to crop density in relation with fc, h, and the training system, namely vase, hedgerow, or trellis systems. Literature collected Kc or Kcb values were compared with previously tabulated Kc and Kcb values, namely in FAO56, to define the standard Kc and Kcb values for the referred selected crops. The tabulated values are, therefore, transferable to other locations and aimed for use in crop water requirement computations and modeling, mainly for irrigation planning and scheduling, and for supporting improved water use and saving in orchards and vineyards.

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2023 Colombia

IS-SAR: an irrigation scheduling web application for Hass avocado orchards based on Sentinel-1 images

Authors: Erazo-Mesa, Edwin; Murillo-Sandoval, Paulo J.; Ramírez-Gil, Joaquín Guillermo; Benavides, Kevin Quiroga; Sánchez, Andrés Echeverri

As the Hass avocado crop expands exponentially in Colombia, concern about its increasing water use is on the rise. This research aimed to develop IS-SAR, a free-access web application to schedule irrigation for Valle del Cauca’s Hass growers. We calibrated the water cloud (WCM) and artificial neural network (ANN) models using field data measurements from Hass avocado orchard plots in Valle del Cauca (Colombia) and Sentinel 1 (S1) satellite imagery measurements and evaluated their performance

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2024 Mediterranean

Water stress tolerance is coordinated with water use capacity and growth under water deficit across six fruit tree species

Authors: Opazo, Ismael; Pimentel, Paula; Salvatierra, Ariel; Ortiz, Mauricio; Toro, Guillermo; Garrido-Salinas, Marco

To compare water stress tolerance traits between different fruit tree species under the same experimental conditions can provide valuable information for understanding the mechanisms underlying water stress tolerance in a broader sense. This work aimed to determine and compare the water stress tolerance of six fruit tree species typically cultivated in Mediterranean regions, i.e., pomegranate, fig, mandarin, avocado, and two Prunus species ('R40' and 'R20') and evaluate its association with water use

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2023 New Zealand

Towards use of life cycle–based indicators to support continuous improvement in the environmental performance of avocado orchards in New Zealand

Authors: Majumdar, Shreyasi; McLaren, Sarah J.

PURPOSE: A life cycle assessment (LCA) study was undertaken for the orchard stage of the NZ avocado value chain, to guide the development of indicators for facilitating continuous improvement in its environmental profile. METHODS: The functional unit (FU) was 1 kg Hass avocados produced in NZ, up to the orchard gate. The baseline model assessed avocados produced in fully productive orchards, using input data collected from 49 orchards across 281 ha in the three main avocado growing regions of New Zealand. In addition, the non-productive and low production years of avocado orchards were assessed using data from four newly established avocado operations spread across 489 ha. Climate change, eutrophication, water use, freshwater ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity results were calculated for each orchard. Finally, national scores were calculated for each impact category from the weighted averages of the individual orchard results in the baseline sample of the three studied regions. RESULTS: There was significant variability between orchards in different input quantities, as well as impact scores. The impact assessment results showed that fuel use and fertiliser/soil conditioner production and use on orchard were consistently the main hotspots for all impact categories except water use, where impacts were generally dominated by indirect water use (irrespective of whether the orchards were irrigated or not). When considering the entire orchard lifespan, the commercially productive stage of the orchard life contributed the most to all impact category results. However, the impacts associated with 1 kg avocados, when allocated based on the total impacts across the orchard lifespan, were 13–26% higher than the baseline results which considered only the commercially productive years of the orchard life. CONCLUSION: The study identified the priority areas for focussed improvement efforts (in particular, fertiliser and fuel use for all impact categories, and agrichemical use for the ecotoxicity impacts). Second, the regional- and national-level impact scores obtained in this study can be used as benchmarks in indicator development to show growers their relative ranking in terms of environmental performance. When using the indicators and benchmarks in a monitoring scheme, consideration should be given to developing separate benchmarks (using area-based functional units) for young orchards. It will also be necessary to develop a better understanding of the reasons for the variability in inputs and impacts so that benchmarks can be tailored to account fairly and equitably for the variability between orchards and regions.

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