Agronomic Management Strategies in Texas: Securing Soil and Improving the Efficiency of Water Use.

A goal of agronomic research in Texas is to improve the efficiency of growing food and fiber crops. Components of improving efficiency are focused on the global challenges of water and soil security. Both challenges are likely to be addressed jointly and simultaneously.  While market forces will ultimately decide on the partitioning of irrigation water between agricultural and urban needs, the timing of limited irrigation water can be optimized for yield production. Once focus of agronomic research in Texas is on timing of limited irrigation water for optimizing yield.  The second component of water used for agriculture is rainwater (or green water). Capture and release of rainwater for crop use is where soil and water security are directly linked. When soil is in prime condition for cropping, it can infiltrate and store rainwater for crop use; thereby, reducing runoff and the associated risk of erosion and loss of rainwater from crop use. Another focus of agronomic research in Texas addresses the effects of soil-specific management strategies such as cover crops and reduced tillage. Both strategies are hypothesized to improve soil condition for capture and release of water to the crop. These strategies are also hypothesized to capture and store soil carbon compared to conventional methods.  In general, these strategies can secure soil under cropping systems by maintaining soil capability in reducing risk of erosion and maximizing soil condition to function for biomass production, filtering water, and as part of the global carbon pool. This presentation will summarize recent successes and lessons of these two research focuses of water timing and Improving soil condition across agronomic regions.  The hypothesis of this summary is that successful improvements in water use efficiency are found with joint improvement in soil condition.