Technologies to Optimize the Water Consumption in Agriculture: A Systematic Review

Agriculture is facing several very important challenges. Population growth means that more food must be produced to meet nutritional needs. However, this is putting excessive pressure on natural resources, such as water and land, which are heavily used for agricultural practices. For these reasons, we carried out a systematic review of existing studies in the scientific literature to better understand how innovative strategies can decrease water consumption in agriculture. It was performed following PRISMA guidelines, using the Scopus database to select papers that have investigated the link between water consumption and the main agriculture strategies, such as controlled-environment agriculture, hydroponics, and precision farming for field crops, in the last ten years. Data relating to the water requirements of the selected crops were estimated to provide a framework for evaluating possible solutions. The results showed that these innovative strategies have the potential to decrease water consumption, but more research is needed to fully understand their effectiveness and potential trade-offs. Therefore, both exogenous and endogenous crop factors should be considered to maximize water savings. The results will form the basis for a framework for assessing the sustainability of agricultural strategies and how they can be applied in a real-life case study.