Field Crop 2025, Vol.8, No.3, 113-125 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/fc 114 deliver water-soluble fertilizers to the soil along with the irrigation water, achieving "simultaneous application of water and fertilizer and supply as needed", which can significantly improve fertilizer utilization efficiency, reduce fertilizer usage by more than 30% to 50% while maintaining the yield level (Fan et al., 2020; Guo et al., 2022). These technologies have been widely applied in arid and semi-arid regions and in facility agriculture, achieving remarkable results. For instance, in cotton production in Xinjiang, drip irrigation and fertilization have significantly increased the per-unit yield and the efficiency of water and fertilizer utilization. In India and other places, it has also demonstrated its water-saving and yield-increasing effects on economic crops such as cumin. In recent years, with the reduction of equipment costs and the renewal of concepts, drip irrigation and water and fertilizer integration have begun to be promoted and applied in the main corn-producing areas of China (such as the North China Plain). This technology is of great significance for alleviating over-exploitation of groundwater in the north, reducing fertilizer pollution, and increasing corn yield and benefits (Li et al., 2023). This study aims to integrate the latest research progress, deeply analyze the influence mechanisms of drip irrigation and water and fertilizer integration on water use efficiency and nutrient use efficiency in corn fields, and evaluate their comprehensive effects on yield, quality and the environment. Compared with existing studies, this paper focuses on the systematic coupling analysis of the efficient utilization of water and nutrients, and highlights the comparative reference of the latest research achievements at home and abroad in recent years. Through this research, it is expected to provide theoretical basis and data support for the production practice of improving the water and fertilizer utilization efficiency of corn, and put forward suggestions for the large-scale promotion and application of related technologies. 2 Basic Principles of Drip Irrigation and Integrated Water and Fertilizer Management 2.1 Development and application of drip irrigation technology Drip irrigation technology originated in Israel in the 1960s. Due to its outstanding water-saving performance, it was quickly promoted to arid and semi-arid regions around the world. In a drip irrigation system, irrigation water is slowly and evenly dripped into the soil near the crop roots through pipes and emitters, thereby maintaining the soil in the root zone at an appropriate moisture level. Compared with traditional surface irrigation, drip irrigation significantly reduces the ineffective evaporation and deep seepage loss of water on the soil surface. Its field irrigation efficiency can generally reach 85%-95%, which is significantly higher than 30%-40% of flood irrigation (Wu et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2023). According to statistics, by 2020, the area of efficient water-saving irrigation in China had exceeded 67 million mu, among which drip irrigation accounted for a considerable proportion (Wu et al., 2021). The large-scale application of drip irrigation technology has effectively alleviated the shortage of agricultural water in many areas. For instance, after the introduction of drip irrigation in farmlands in North China, due to precise irrigation and obvious water-saving effects, the seasonal irrigation quota for corn per mu was reduced from 200 to 250 cubic meters in the past to about 150 cubic meters. Meanwhile, the yield could also increase, demonstrating good comprehensive benefits (Li et al., 2024). 2.2 Core mechanism of integrated water and fertilizer management Integrated water and fertilizer management is a new agricultural technology that combines and synchronizes the processes of irrigation and fertilization. The core mechanism lies in using irrigation pipes to deliver water-soluble fertilizers to the root zone soil in a timely and appropriate manner according to the needs of crops, thereby achieving "watering and fertilizing simultaneously", and meeting the synchronous demands of crops for water and nutrients at different growth stages. Compared with the traditional method of separating irrigation and fertilization, water and fertilizer integration has obvious advantages: Firstly, nutrients directly enter the concentrated distribution area of crop roots along with the irrigation water, which can significantly reduce the fixation and leaching of nutrients in the soil and improve the effective utilization rate of fertilizers (Sampathkumar and Pandian, 2010). Studies have shown that the application of drip irrigation fertilization technology can increase the utilization rate of nitrogen fertilizer by 10 to 30 percentage points, and the utilization rates of nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium are also significantly improved (Govada et al., 2024). Secondly, the simultaneous supply of water and fertilizer is conducive to coordinating the water physiology and nutrient physiology processes of crops. When the soil moisture is sufficient, the root system of crops has an enhanced ability to absorb nutrients,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4ODYzNA==