The research activities in the first half of 2020 were greatly affected by COVID-19 in China. Since May, with the epidemic under control, research activities were released gradually.

● Xun Wu designed a fourth-year drip irrigation experiment for cotton in Xinjiang for calibration of AquaCrop. Jianchu Shi organized a smart irrigation demonstration project, working with an agricultural company in Shawan XinJiang. They are both progressing and expected to end in mid-October.

● Meanwhile, Tianshu Wang and Yanqi Xu designed a greenhouse soil column experiment to explore the hysteresis effects of combined water and salinity stress on root water uptake and transpiration of winter wheat and its quantitative characterization. The experiment included 3 water, 3 fertilizer and 3 salt levels.

● In addition, Xun Wu and Ting Zhang are calibrating AquaCrop based on the data of winter wheat previously obtained in Beijing. Further plan is to evaluate the performance of AquaCrop in simulating canopy cover, soil water, evapotranspiration, yield, and water productivity of winter wheat planted in weighing lysimeters.

Thus, progress is still being made in the project.

Measurement of gas exchange of cotton in the field using a portable photosynthesis apparatus (Li-6400, Li-Cor, USA).