© Springer International Publishing AG 2016 415
M. Farooq, K.H.M. Siddique (eds.), Innovations in Dryland Agriculture,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47928-6_15
Dryland Agriculture in North America
Neil C. Hansen, Brett L. Allen, Saseendran Anapalli, Robert E. Blackshaw,
Drew J. Lyon, and Stephen Machado
1 Introduction
Dryland crop production is found in semi-arid regions of North America including
much of Mexico, the Western United States, and the Canadian Prairies (Fig. 1 ).
These lands are classified as semi-arid based on an aridity index, with values of P/
ETP between 0.2 and 0.5, where P is annual precipitation and ETP is annual poten-
tial evapotranspiration. The map (Fig. 1 ) was created using data from WorldClim
Global Climate Data (http://WorldClim.org) as modelled in the CGIAR-CSI Global-
Aridity Database (Zomer et al. 2007 , 2008 ). Nearly 40 % of North America is clas-
sified as an arid or semi-arid region. To illustrate the extent of dryland farming
within the semi-arid zones of North America, a map was created that shows areas
where wheat (Tritcum aestivum L.) is produced (Fig. 2 ). Wheat in semi-arid zones
was chosen as a means of illustrating locations of dryland farming because it is the
N.C. Hansen (*)
Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
B.L. Allen
United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Sidney, MT, USA
S. Anapalli
United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service,
Stoneville, MS, USA
R.E. Blackshaw
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
D.J. Lyon
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
S. Machado
Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center, Oregon State University, Pendleton, OR, USA