Conveners
Sustainable Agriculture and Water Efficiency
- Faissal AZIZ (Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech, Morocco)
Description
This session focuses on sustainable agricultural practices that promote water efficiency, such as precision irrigation, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, and agroforestry. This session can explore also strategies to improve crop-water productivity, including the use of drought-tolerant crop varieties and optimized irrigation scheduling.
Argania spinosa (L.) is a horticultural forest endemic to the arid and semi-arid zones of south-west Morocco. This species is adapted to the harsh conditions and plays an important socio-economic and ecological role in Morocco's sustainable development. However, this crop faces multitude of constraints, notably drought, which has a negative impact on the density and success of reforestation....
In the present study, we investigate the impact of treatment with exogenous silicon (Si) on agronomic traits, photosynthesis, oxidative markers, antioxidant systems and biological nitrogen fixation on salt stressed fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) plants. The experiment was carried out in a growth chamber at 25 ± 1 °C, 60% - 80% relative humidity and a photoperiod of 16h. Fenugreek...
The phenomena of climate change and global warming are already exerting negative effects on plants, which are projected to worsen by the end of the 21st century. Furthermore, the challenge of nourishing some 10 billion people by 2050 versus intense drought versus extensive agriculture is further complicating an already complex problem. For the aforementioned, the sustainable reliance on...
Improper winter wheat management limits yield, nitrogen and water use efficiency, given the increasing constraints on agricultural productivity in Morocco. The use of crop growth models is a potentially effective tool for evaluating management practices to enhance yields and resource use efficiency. This study focused on using the DSSAT-CERES-Wheat model to identify the best management...
A significant share of global crop production is limited by the availability and quality of water resources. At the same time, global freshwater resources from rivers, lakes and groundwater ("blue water") are today widely used for irrigation. The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are considered to be the region with the largest proportion of used to available surface...
One of the severe abiotic stresses leading to reductions in agricultural production is drought stress (DS). This study was conducted to examine the efficacy of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (M: consortium) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (R and B: consortium), individually or in combination, as an appropriate strategy for improving durum wheat productivity under two water regimes:...
Irrigation water management has become an imperative for the sustainability of Morocco's agricultural sector. In Morocco, rainfall, the main source of water for agricultural production, is becoming increasingly irregular as a result of climate change. In this context, the adoption of new and innovative irrigation techniques and strategies represents new directions for improving the resilience...
This work aimed at evaluating the biostimulative and biofertilizer effects of silicon (Si) and the rhizobial inoculum on the growth and development of the Moroccan Zahour chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) variety under water deficit conditions. A field experiment was conducted at Beni-Mellal region under three factors: (i) Water irrigation (optimal irrigation versus deficit irrigation); (ii) Si...
The urgent need for efficient agriculture to increase crop and food has fueled the development of coated fertilizers with slow-release kinetics, water economy, and full degradability to avoid negative environmental impact. In this context, we herein report the synthesis of poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) grafted from chitosan (CS) as a new class of biodegradable coating materials. The CS-g-PCL...
The objective of this work is the characterization and the screening of effective Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) for alfalfa growth and production. Twenty PGPR were isolated from nodules and soil rhizospheric of alfalfa in the Beni-Mellal region. The isolates were tested on YEM agar plates for their tolerance to abiotic stresses and for their plant growth-promoting traits. Results...
