Minimum leaching scheduling of nitrogen fertilization and irrigation

  • Meira S. Falkovitz
  • Eli Feinerman
Article
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Abstract

This paper develops and applies a dynamic mathematical model for optimal scheduling of nitrogen fertilization and irrigation that minimizes nitrogen leaching subject to a target level of yield. The analysis assumes a single crop grown during a single growing season of a given length. It is shown that substitution of water for nitrogen along a given plant growth path decreases nitrogen leaching and, therefore, groundwater contamination. It is proved that a minimum leaching solution to the optimization problem is obtained with a single nitrogen application at the beginning of the season and irrigation scheduling that maintains a wet soil throughout the growing period. A numerical example utilizing experimental data for an irrigated summer corn in Israel confirms and quantifies the analytical findings.

Keywords

Root Zone Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant Size Nitrogen Fertilization Irrigation Schedule 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Society for Mathematical Biology 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • Meira S. Falkovitz
    • 1
  • Eli Feinerman
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Agriculture Economics, Faculty of AgricultureThe Hebrew University of JerusalemRehovotIsrael

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