Dept. of Horticulture et al. (2025) Micro-Irrigation and Fertigation for Improving Water Use Efficiency in Fruit Crops — A Review

Identification

• Journal: INTERANTIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-23
• Authors: Dept. of Horticulture, Naini Agriculture Institute, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P.)
• DOI: 10.55041/ijsrem55443

Research Groups

• Department of Horticulture, RNT College of Agriculture, Kapasan {MPUAT, Udaipur}
• Department of Horticulture, Naini Agriculture Institute, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P.)

Short Summary

This review synthesizes the principles, benefits, limitations, and future needs of micro-irrigation and fertigation technologies for improving water and nutrient use efficiency, yield, and fruit quality in fruit crops. It highlights their transformative role in modern, sustainable horticulture by delivering water and dissolved nutrients directly to the crop root zone.

Objective

• To synthesize the principles, system components, scheduling strategies, fertigation practices, sensor and automation roles, crop-specific findings, environmental and economic benefits, limitations, and future research needs for micro-irrigation and fertigation in fruit crops.
• To evaluate how micro-irrigation and fertigation enhance crop water use efficiency (WUE), fertilizer use efficiency (FUE), yield, and fruit quality while reducing environmental losses.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, encompassing various agro-climatic regions, with specific references to Indian contexts (e.g., PMKSY, ICAR reports, PFDC data).
• Temporal Scale: A review of existing scientific literature and research findings up to December 2025.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) based scheduling (calculating water need from reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and crop coefficient (Kc)).
  • Drip scheduling models.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models for predicting irrigation demand.
  • FAO AquaCrop Model (mentioned in references).
• Data sources:
  • Scientific literature (peer-reviewed articles, reviews, meta-analyses).
  • Field trials and experimental data (e.g., ICAR reports, PFDC research data).
  • Observation data from sensors (soil moisture sensors, tensiometers, capacitance probes, leaf water potential proxies, sap flow, canopy temperature, microclimatic parameters, weather stations).
  • Remote sensing data (e.g., NDVI sensors, satellite remote sensing).
  • Government reports and guidelines (e.g., PMKSY, MIDH, NABARD, FAO, BIS standards).

Main Results

• Micro-irrigation (MI) and fertigation significantly enhance Water Use Efficiency (WUE) (up to 80–95% system efficiency, 30–55% water savings) and Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) in fruit crops.
• These technologies lead to substantial improvements in yield (20–45% increase across various fruit crops) and fruit quality (e.g., improved berry composition, total soluble solids, phenolic content, fruit size, firmness, flavor, and shelf life).
• Environmental benefits include reduced water withdrawals, lower groundwater depletion, decreased nutrient leaching, reduced soil erosion and salinization risk, and support for climate-smart agriculture.
• Economic benefits encompass higher yields, improved fruit quality leading to premium prices, reduced labor and input costs, early fruit maturity, and potential government subsidies for adoption.
• Advanced technologies like sensors, automation, AI/ML models, and remote sensing further optimize MI-fertigation systems, enabling precision scheduling and dynamic adjustments.
• Key challenges for adoption include high initial capital investment, emitter clogging, the need for specific water-soluble fertilizers, lack of technical knowledge among farmers, and socio-economic barriers.

Contributions

• Provides a comprehensive synthesis of the principles, system components, scheduling strategies, and practical applications of micro-irrigation and fertigation in fruit crop production.
• Offers a detailed overview of crop-specific findings, quantifying water savings and yield enhancements across major fruit crops like citrus, grapes, mango, banana, and strawberry.
• Identifies significant environmental and economic benefits, highlighting the role of these technologies in sustainable and climate-smart horticulture.
• Discusses the integration of modern sensors, automation, AI, and ML in optimizing MI-fertigation systems, outlining future trends in smart irrigation.
• Systematically addresses the constraints and challenges to adoption, proposing best management practices and emphasizing the need for capacity building and policy support.

Funding

No direct funding for this specific review paper was explicitly mentioned. However, the paper notes that government subsidies under schemes like PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, MIDH (Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture), and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) support the adoption of micro-irrigation and fertigation systems by farmers.

Citation

@article{DeptofHorticulture2025MicroIrrigation,
  author = {Dept. of Horticulture, Naini Agriculture Institute, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P.) and Vaishnav, Tikam Das and Rajwade, Vijay Bahadur and Dashora, L. K. and Shruti, Shruti},
  title = {Micro-Irrigation and Fertigation for Improving Water Use Efficiency in Fruit Crops — A Review},
  journal = {INTERANTIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.55041/ijsrem55443},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsrem55443}
}