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Topic · Soil Science

Irrigation Practices and Water Management

Irrigation Practices and Water Management is a research topic within Soil Science. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 16.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the use of deficit irrigation and innovative water management techniques to improve water use efficiency and crop productivity in arid and semiarid regions. Topics include the effects of mulching, drip irrigation, soil moisture management, and the physiological responses of various crops to deficit irrigation strategies.

  • Deficit Irrigation
  • Water Use Efficiency
  • Mulching
  • Irrigation Management
  • Crop Productivity
  • Soil Moisture
  • Drip Irrigation
  • Water Scarcity
  • Arid Areas
  • Horticultural Crops
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
16.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+54%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Irrigation Practices and Water Management research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (1.1k and 850 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 1.1k works
  2. 2 India 850 works
  3. 3 United States 424 works
  4. 4 Brazil 265 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 162 works
  6. 6 Egypt 154 works
  7. 7 Iran 153 works
  8. 8 Ethiopia 152 works
  9. 9 Spain 132 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 102 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 30.7%India: 24.6%United States: 12.3%Brazil: 7.7%6 others listed: 24.7%31%largest
China1,059 · 30.7%India850 · 24.6%United States424 · 12.3%Brazil265 · 7.7%6 others listed855 · 24.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Irrigation Practices and Water Management research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Northwest A&F University publishes the most Irrigation Practices and Water Management research, followed by Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and China Agricultural University.

Who are the leading researchers in Irrigation Practices and Water Management?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Irrigation Practices and Water Management include Kalyanmoy Deb, Martinus Th. van Genuchten and Ajay Singh.

  1. 1 Kalyanmoy Deb United States 6.7k citations
  2. 2 Martinus Th. van Genuchten United States 5.1k citations
  3. 3 Ajay Singh United States 2.4k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Irrigation Practices and Water Management research done?

The largest centres of Irrigation Practices and Water Management research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Yangling (China) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Portland, Shihezi and Yangling.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 262 works
  2. 2 Tashkent Uzbekistan 70 works
  3. 3 Yangling China 69 works
  4. 4 Addis Ababa Ethiopia 64 works
  5. 5 Giza Egypt 60 works
  6. 6 Lanzhou China 59 works
  7. 7 New Delhi India 57 works
  8. 8 Tehran Iran 56 works
  9. 9 Nanjing China 54 works
  10. 10 Coimbatore India 52 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. PortlandUS · 37.8 works53×
  2. ShiheziCN · 38.5 works39×
  3. YanglingCN · 69.4 works36×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Irrigation Practices and Water Management than the world average.

See Irrigation Practices and Water Management on the map

Where is the best place to study Irrigation Practices and Water Management?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwest A&F University, China Agricultural University and Shihezi University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 25.57%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F University: 69, 48.5%China Agricultural University: 50, 34.3%Shihezi University: 35, 34.0%Gansu Agricultural University: 35, 33.3%Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research: 53, 1.1%Punjab Agricultural University: 36, 14.2%Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers: 42, 12.6%Ningxia University: 10, 42.1%Shanxi Agricultural University: 10, 31.1%Tamil Nadu Agricultural University: 41, 4.5%Northwest A&F Univer…China Agricultural U…Shihezi UniversityGansu Agricultural U…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Northwest A&F UniversityChina 88.548.5%36.1×69 +133.4%
2 China Agricultural UniversityChina 70.034.3%18.5×50 +20.2%
3 Shihezi UniversityChina 60.534.0%39.0×35 -45.5%
4 Gansu Agricultural UniversityChina 60.433.3%47.7×35 -43.2%
5 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural ResearchEthiopia 59.31.1%91.2×53 +326.5%
6 Punjab Agricultural UniversityIndia 58.814.2%45.0×36 +126.6%
7 Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization EngineersUzbekistan 57.912.6%116.2×42
8 Ningxia UniversityChina 55.042.1%10.2×10 -34.6%
9 Shanxi Agricultural UniversityChina 53.031.1%15.3×10
10 Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityIndia 52.84.5%36.8×41 +108.5%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Irrigation Practices and Water Management research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 54% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Irrigation Practices and Water Management.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.