Evaluating strategies to improve water availability and lateral root growth of plants grown in the rice-growing lowlands of the Lower Mekong Basin Ballester Lurbe, Carlos, Hornbuckle, John, Inthavong, T, Lim, V, McCormick, J, Molesworth, Anika, Oeurng, C, Quayle, Wendy, Seng, V, Sengxua, P, Sihathep, V, Touch, V, Vote, C and Eberbach, P 2021, Evaluating strategies to improve water availability and lateral root growth of plants grown in the rice-growing lowlands of the Lower Mekong Basin, Agronomy, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 1-25, doi: 10.3390/agronomy11101929. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Evaluating strategies to improve water availability and lateral root growth of plants grown in the rice-growing lowlands of the Lower Mekong Basin Author(s) Ballester Lurbe, Carlos orcid.org/0000-0002-6885-0883 Hornbuckle, John orcid.org/0000-0003-0714-6646 Inthavong, T Lim, V McCormick, J Molesworth, Anika Oeurng, C orcid.org/0000-0003-0622-1915 Quayle, Wendy Seng, V Sengxua, P Sihathep, V Touch, V Vote, C Eberbach, P Journal name Agronomy Volume number 11 Issue number 10 Article ID 1929 Start page 1 End page 25 Total pages 25 Publisher MDPI Place of publication Basel, Switzerland Publication date 2021-10 ISSN 2073-4395 Keyword(s) dry season maize peanut water productivity irrigation Summary Overcoming constraints that poorly structured lowland rice-growing soils of the Lower Mekong River Basin present for growing non-rice crops during the dry season would have a significant positive impact on the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This study investigated whether the use of soil organic amendments, bed architecture (conventional, flat and narrow) and water application methods (sprinkler, furrow and over-bed irrigation) could improve plant water availability in typical rice-growing soils of Cambodia and Laos by either improving the movement of water into beds or the growth of the root system. Five experiments were conducted over two dry seasons on peanut and maize grown in a bed/furrow system. Organic amendments assessed were rice straw, cow/goat manure, biochar, manure plus rice straw and biochar plus manure. Results showed that compared with conventional bed/furrow design, narrowing beds increased soil moisture availability for peanut, whilst higher grain yield and water productivity were achieved with sprinkler irrigation than furrow irrigation. Placing a layer of sub-surface straw within beds did not consistently enhance soil moisture or improve root development. The study showed that maize grown on soil amended with biochar plus cow manure under a furrow irrigation system and on rice straw under sprinkler irrigation produced yields above the average yield that models have simulated for maize grown on these soils. These findings present opportunities to enhance maize production on lowland soils across Cambodia and Laos. The contrary was observed for peanut production, which indicates that factors other than water might be detrimentally affecting crop yields. Language eng DOI 10.3390/agronomy11101929 Field of Research 0502 Environmental Science and Management 0703 Crop and Pasture Production HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30156426 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health Open Access Collection Centre for Regional and Rural Futures Related Links Link Description Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges   Link to full-text (open access)     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Mon, 04 Oct 2021, 07:30:37 EST Mon, 04 Oct 2021, 15:10:05 EST Mon, 04 Oct 2021, 15:11:56 EST Mon, 04 Oct 2021, 15:16:12 EST Tue, 05 Oct 2021, 10:38:29 EST Fri, 29 Oct 2021, 15:43:56 EST Sat, 30 Oct 2021, 01:47:15 EST Mon, 01 Nov 2021, 08:20:58 EST Wed, 03 Nov 2021, 12:45:06 EST Wed, 03 Nov 2021, 12:57:36 EST Wed, 03 Nov 2021, 12:59:35 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 71 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 04 Oct 2021, 07:30:37 EST