Irrigation, as a research topic, encompasses the controlled application of water to agricultural or landscaped soils to optimize plant growth, yield, and resource efficiency under variable climatic and hydrological conditions. It includes the study and modeling of water delivery methods (e.g., surface, sprinkler, and drip systems), soil–plant–atmosphere water dynamics, evapotranspiration estimation, and scheduling strategies based on soil moisture, plant stress indicators, or climate data. Research additionally addresses irrigation water quality, salinity management, impacts on groundwater and surface water systems, energy use, and integration with precision agriculture and deficit-irrigation strategies to improve water productivity and sustainability.
When it comes to drought stress, timing can be the difference between saving a crop and losing it, whether in a greenhouse or in the high-stakes environment of future space missions. In a recent study published in Plant Phenomics, ...
Space Exploration
21 hours ago
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7
The burgeoning East Coast broccoli industry is helping lower costs slightly and reduce reliance on the drought-prone West. Those were findings from a new supply chain model study that showed expanding production outside California—the ...
Agriculture
Jun 30, 2026
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7
As drought and water uncertainty put increasing pressure on orchard systems, researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia, launched a study in ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 26, 2026
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10
Regenerative agriculture can deliver both economic and environmental benefits for European farmers, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) concludes in the research project Regenomics. Whether these benefits are actually ...
Agriculture
Jun 25, 2026
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38
Heat waves are arriving sooner and becoming hotter, with the United Kingdom recording May 25 as its hottest day in May since tracking began more than a century ago, only for the record to be broken again the next day. While ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 16, 2026
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Global rice production nearly doubled between the 1960s and the 2010s, despite the negative impacts of climate change, according to a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The study found that management ...
Agriculture
Jun 10, 2026
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22
For generations, economists have viewed markets as the gold standard of efficiency, assuming resources naturally flow to the people who value them most. But new research from the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert ...
Agriculture
Jun 10, 2026
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14
Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping the contours of life as we know it. In agriculture, the world market for AI is expected to reach almost US$47 billion by 2034. AI enables higher farm yields with fewer ...
Biotechnology
Jun 9, 2026
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11
A collaboration of scientists from NASA and Brazilian research institutions has produced a detailed picture of groundwater change across Brazil. The images reveal significant declines in some of the aquifers that are critical ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 8, 2026
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15
Radar data from an agricultural area in South Africa, shown in a vivid color palette, reveal crop types and how they changed during the Southern Hemisphere's growing season.
Agriculture
May 29, 2026
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