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CC BY-ND V4.0, Open Access
Thesis
Irrigation Scheduling for High-Value Annual Specialty Crops in the Face of Climate Change: Two Research Approaches
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005229
Abstract
The current human-driven climate crisis poses a significant threat to the availability and reliability of existing water resources, especially in agriculture for irrigation. However, there are significant gaps in the literature to inform farmers’ irrigation management strategies in high-value annual crops such as vegetable seed crops. Additionally, alternative research strategies such as farmer participatory research (FPR) may prove to be important complementary tools for helping farmers adapt to climate change, but also lack literature in farmer irrigation scheduling and management. This thesis attempts to address these knowledge gaps by investigating different irrigation tools and thresholds in spinach seed production in a maritime Mediterranean climate and the potential of FPR for helping farmers of high-value annual crops adapt to climate change. It concludes that 1) moderate irrigation deficits in spinach seed production may maximize seed yield efficiency while minimizing the impacts of fungal diseases, and 2) that FPR can be a useful tool for engaging farmers in research that is highly relevant to their individual interests but less widely applicable than more traditional researcher-led research.
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Details
- Title
- Irrigation Scheduling for High-Value Annual Specialty Crops in the Face of Climate Change
- Creators
- Harmony Claire Varner
- Contributors
- Gabriel T LaHue (Advisor)Michael Brady (Committee Member)Jessica Goldberger (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Crop and Soil Sciences, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 91
- Identifiers
- 99901019636201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis