Balancing agricultural and hydrologic risk in farming systems of the Chaco Plains

This research paper analyzes the trade-offs between agricultural production risk and ecohydrologic risk (specifically dryland salinity caused by deep drainage) in the semiarid Chaco Plains, proposing flexible cropping sequences based on soil water content to balance these risks.

• Farming systems in the semiarid Chaco face a trade-off between water-conservative systems, which stabilize yields but increase the risk of dryland salinity through deep drainage in wet years, and intensive systems, which reduce drainage but increase the likelihood of crop failure.
• Analysis of five farming systems (winter, spring, summer, late-summer, and double crop) shows that water stress decreases as systems are delayed toward the rainy season, meaning late-summer strategies are productively safer but exhibit the highest drainage rates.
• In drainage-prone areas, implementing flexible cropping sequences that alternate between conservative and intensive systems based on soil water status can significantly reduce mean annual drainage while maintaining an acceptable level of water stress.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Balancing agricultural and hydrologic risk in farming systems of the Chaco Plains. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/balancing-agricultural-and-hydrologic-risk-in-farming-systems-of-the-chaco-plains/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Balancing agricultural and hydrologic risk in farming systems of the Chaco Plains. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/balancing-agricultural-and-hydrologic-risk-in-farming-systems-of-the-chaco-plains/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Balancing agricultural and hydrologic risk in farming systems of the Chaco Plains |date=15 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/balancing-agricultural-and-hydrologic-risk-in-farming-systems-of-the-chaco-plains/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025balancing, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Balancing agricultural and hydrologic risk in farming systems of the Chaco Plains}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/balancing-agricultural-and-hydrologic-risk-in-farming-systems-of-the-chaco-plains/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }