Sustainable Agriculture

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Is Partial Root Zone Drying Irrigation A Feasible Water Saving Strategy In African Leafy Vegetable Production? A Review.
(Afr. J. Hort. Sci., 2016) Odula, Osia; Wesonga, John; Masinde, Peter; Stützel, Hartmut
Kenya is considered a water deficit countrywith an annual water recharge of 640m 3per capita.Water saving irrigation technologies such as partial root zone drying (PRD) are important means to sustainability produce high yield and quality African leafy vegetables under water limited conditions.PRD is a novel and innovative approach in which half of the root zone is irrigated interchangeably in a planned irrigation schedule.Several researchersin developed countries,particularly those from arid and semiarid,have extensively evaluated PRD as a water saving irrigation strategy on field and horticultural crops without significant influence on both crop yield and quality.PRD actually improves product quality in several crop species as partial root zone drying exploits the drought induced abscisic acid root to shoot signalling to limit stomatal conductance which ultimately saves water.In this paper we reviewPRD results on various field and horticultural crops around the globe with the view of assessing the potential of its implementation in productionof African leafy vegetables in urban and periurban areas in Kenya.