Using an integrated framework, we show that irrigation optimization increases irrigation water productivity by 11.84%, while reducing water use by 8.6% and GHG emissions by 45.3%. Under climate change scenarios, optimized allocation decreases irrigation volume by 6.9-9.3%, with crop yields rising in two-thirds of scenarios, reaching gains of up to 31.3%. Nationwide, crop water productivity is projected to rise by 0.68%-18.55%, accompanied by a reduction in GHG emissions of 7.49%-32.90%. These results demonstrate that coordinated irrigation optimization can effectively decouple agricultural production from water consumption and carbon emissions, highlighting its potential as a robust and scalable strategy for safeguarding food security while advancing agricultural sustainability and carbon-neutrality objectives.
Chen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.