Balancing Soil Fertility and Water Resource Management for Sustainable Environment

To minimize the deleterious environmental consequences and promote soil sustainability without affecting plant productivity, it is imperative that soil fertility management is utilized in conjunction with water resource management in sustainable agricultural production. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the impact of different soil fertility levels combined with varied water management strategies on soil properties, water and nutrient use efficiencies, plant growth and yield and other environmental and economic indicators. The study was laid out in factorial design replicated thrice with treatment application in the main plots. The results indicate that integrated management, particularly high soil fertility and optimized irrigation level (S3W2) treatment, improved several soil physical and chemical characteristics; biological properties; water and nutrient use efficiency; plant growth, grain and aboveground biomass yield; net return and benefit to cost ratio; and environmental indicators such as C sequestration and nutrient loss. The integrated specific effects on these variables demonstrated the feasibility of the intervention in synchronizing nutrient and water management for sustainable intensification and resource-use and environmental protection. The future studies should include the long-term impact and impact on GHG emissions and the potential and scale up of the integrated practices in diverse agro-ecological systems.