PURPOSE AND NATURE

The purpose of the Conference is to provide training and information exchange on the use of nuclear and conventional techniques for enhancing more crops per drop. The lectures will include the basic principles of evapotranspiration and crop water use. Methods of calculating and measuring evapotranspiration and its partitioning into soil evaporation and crop transpiration, the two major sources of water losses from agricultural systems, will be presented. A quantitative framework for improving water use efficiency from field to area-wide scale will be discussed. Participants will have the opportunity to use FAO’s AquaCrop model to predict yield response to water under both rainfed and irrigated production systems. 


MAIN TOPICS

• Soil water balance and evapotranspiration – methodology, estimation, evaporation pan, soil moisture measurement using neutron probe and other techniques.
• Methods of calculating evaporation and transpiration –conventional techniques.
• Separating transpiration (T) and evaporation (E) through isotopic and nuclear techniques: theory, methods and equipments.
• Water use efficiency and crop water productivity calculation & data requirement.
• Improving agricultural water productivity and enhancing crop water use efficiency using the FAO AquaCrop Model.
• Case studies: soil water balance studies; the use of AquaCrop under different irrigation management.