Intensive irrigation and nutrient management practices in agriculture have given rise to serious issues in aquifer water depletion and groundwater quality. This review discusses the effects of irrigation and nitrogen management practices on potato growth, yield, and quality, and their impacts on water and nitrogen use efficiencies. This review also highlights the economics and consequences of applying deficit irrigation strategies in potato production. Many researchers have demonstrated that excessive irrigation and nitrogen application rates negatively impact potato tuber yield and quality while also increasing nitrate leaching, energy consumption, and the overall costs of production. An application of light-to-moderate deficit irrigation (10–30% of full irrigation) together with reduced nitrogen rates (60–170 kg/ha) has a great potential to improve water and nitrogen use efficiencies while obtaining optimum yield and quality in potato production, depending on the climate, variety, soil type, and water availability. There is an opportunity to reduce N application rates in potato production through deficit irrigation practices by minimizing nitrate leaching beyond the crop root zone. The best irrigation and nitrogen management techniques for potato production, as discussed in this review, include using sprinkle and drip irrigation techniques, irrigation scheduling based on local crop coefficients, soil moisture content, and crop modeling techniques, applying slow-release nitrogenous fertilizers, split nitrogen application, and applying water and nitrogenous fertilizers in accordance with crop growth stage requirements.

Irrigation and nitrogen management are crucial for sustainable potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production. A field experiment was conducted during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons at Farmington, New Mexico, to evaluate the performance of two chip potato varieties (Lamoka and Waneta) under three irrigation regimes (full irrigation (FI), 20% deficit irrigation (DI) and 40% DI) and seven nitrogen fertilizer rates (0, 60, 115, 170, 220, 280, and 340 kg N/ha). The treatment combinations of irrigation regimes, nitrogen rates, and varieties were arranged in a split–split plot design with three replications as main plot, sub-plot, and sub-sub plot, respectively. The two-year results showed that irrigation regimes had the most significant effect on plant growth, physiology, and tuber yield of the potato varieties. For both Lamoka and Waneta, the plant height and canopy cover were lower under 40% DI than under 20% DI and FI treatments. The SPAD meter values were higher under 40% DI, followed by 20% DI and FI treatments, whereas the stomatal conductance was higher under FI, followed by 20% DI and 40% DI during both growing seasons. Regardless of nitrogen rates and variety, a 20% water-saving irrigation strategy reduced the total tuber yield by 4.5% and 22.1% in the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, respectively, while the 40% water-saving irrigation strategy reduced total tuber yield by 36.8% and 58.2% in the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, respectively, as compared to full irrigation. Shifting from full irrigation to 20% DI could save 711.2 to 1036.3 m³/ha of irrigation water. For Lamoka, the highest total tuber yield was obtained with 60 kg N/ha under 20% DI and 220 kg N/ha under FI in 2022 and 2023, respectively. For Waneta, the highest total tuber yield was obtained with 115 kg N/ha under 20% DI and 170 kg N/ha under FI in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Maximum water use efficiency (WUE) was obtained at 60 kg N/ha with 20% DI for both Lamoka and Waneta in 2022, while maximum WUE was obtained at 220 kg N/ha under FI for Lamoka and at 170 kg N/ha for Waneta in the 2023 season. The maximum nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) was achieved with 60 kg N/ha under 20% DI for both varieties during both growing seasons. Thus, for sustainable irrigation and nitrogen management, the application of a 20% deficit irrigation strategy with a lower nitrogen rate (60 to 170 kg N/ha) could be the best option to improve WUE and NUE with minimal tuber yield reduction. Our study suggested that 40% deficit irrigation would not be beneficial as compared to both full irrigation and 20% water-saving irrigation.

Guar is a potential crop that can be grown as a forage or as a seed crop in arid to semi-arid regions due to its low water requirements and tolerance to heat. Optimizing irrigation water use is important for making alternative crops such as guar a sustainable option. Amendments such as biogenic silica, a sedimentary rock from a biogenic source such as fossils, may help plants tolerate water stress due to reduced irrigation. The objective of the current study was to evaluate seed yield and attribute components and agronomic and physiological parameters for four guar genotypes (Matador, Kinman, Lewis, and NMSU 15-G1) under five drip irrigation regimes (I₁-normal irrigation, I₂-no irrigation at 75% pod formation, I₃-no irrigation at 50% and 75% pod formation, I₄-terminate irrigation at flowering, and I₅-terminate irrigation at flowering + biogenic silica amendment) at Las Cruces in southern New Mexico, USA, from 2016 to 2018. On average, the I₁ irrigation regime produced the highest guar seed yield (2715 kg ha⁻¹) followed by I₅ (2469 kg ha⁻¹) from 2016 to 2018. As compared to the I₁ regime, the I₂ and I₃ regimes resulted in a 20.8% and 23.4% decline in guar seed yield, respectively, on average from 2016 to 2018. The results suggest that the addition of biogenic silica might help to improve guar seed yield under reduced irrigation conditions and can produce comparable yields with an average of 300 mm of irrigation during the growing season in the southern New Mexico region of the Southwest US.

Water use in agriculture is a critical aspect of sustainable food production. Efficient water management is essential to address both yield optimization and environmental concerns. The current study evaluated the water diversions by the Irrigation District 05—Delicias (DR-05), in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, for four major crops grown in the region including alfalfa, chile, pecans and peanuts. The amounts of water applied to raise these crops were compared to the amounts of water use estimated with the evapotranspiration (ET) method and with the crop yield function model, and respective water use efficiencies were estimated with both the methods. The water use efficiency measured using the ET estimation (WUE-ET) for alfalfa ranged from 60.9% to 70.4%, while the water use efficiency derived from the yield function data (WUE-YF) showed lower values and ranged from 43.6% to 59.7%. In the case of chile, the opposite trends were observed than in alfalfa, with the WUE-ET for chile ranging from 47.7% to 54.8%, and WUE-YF showing higher values that ranged from 49% to 70%. In the case of peanuts and pecans, only the WUE-ET was estimated and it ranged from 55.9% to 68.8% for peanuts and 90.9% to 116.9% pecans, respectively. Among the four crops studied, pecans were found to have the highest WUE-ET, with values of WUE-ET reaching higher than 100%. However, it is to be noted that these high values of water use efficiencies are more indicative that pecans are probably under irrigated.