Irrigation and agroecology: A scientific mismatch? A literature review
2025
Leauthaud, Crystèle | Ameur, Fatah | Leenhardt, Sophie
Agroecology and irrigation practices and systems, which are essential to achieve sufficient and sustainable agricultural production, have seldom been jointly rationalized. This review aims to gain insight into the current state of the art of research at the cusp of these two fields. Relevant scientific literature from two standpoints, that of the water and agricultural research communities, was analyzed. Thirty-eight papers queried from the Clarivate Web of Science were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Most papers were confined to water budget analyses of cropping systems and practices or to experimental manipulations. Only a small number of papers were found to acknowledge the co-existence of irrigation and agroecology practices or highlight that irrigation offers an opportunity for agroecological systems. Links between agroecology and irrigation at higher levels (farm, territorial, food system) were analyzed in a scant number of papers. We suggest that these oversights could be due to the fact that these two research fields – in addition to the associated policies and realities – have different narratives, goals, approaches, scales, and involved actors. Research needs to delve much deeper by designing agroecological systems in which irrigation is tailored to the complexity of agroecological systems, while striving to enhance ecological processes for the provision of multiple ecosystem services.
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