Approaches for increasing nitrogen and water use efficiency simultaneously

Enhancement of water and nitrogen use efficiency simultaneously may provide advantages over optimization of water and nitrogen inputs separately. In addition, water is the driver of the main environmental problems caused by excessive nitrogen use, such as nitrate contamination of water bodies or increasing emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Therefore, management practices oriented towards reducing nitrogen losses and maintaining farm productivity should rely on optimizing nitrogen and water inputs at the same time. This manuscript identifies agricultural systems with strong interactions between water- and nitrogen-use efficiency. Measurements and approaches for applying new technologies to increasing nitrogen and water efficiency simultaneously are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.