{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T06:19:14Z","timestamp":1787552354977,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787529600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004686","name":"Deanship of Scientific Research, King Faisal University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["KFU263206"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["KFU263206"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004686","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Water scarcity is a major constraint to sugar beet production in sandy soils due to low water-holding capacity and rapid drainage.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A two-season field experiment was conducted to evaluate the combined effects of deficit irrigation and hydrogel application on sugar beet yield, juice quality, and water-use efficiency (WUE). Four irrigation regimes were tested: I1 (100% ETc), I2 (85% ETc), I3 (70% ETc), and I4 (55% ETc), in combination with four hydrogel rates: H0 (0), H1 (5), H2 (10), and H3 (15\u00a0kg ha\n                      <jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>\n                      ).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results and discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Deficit irrigation significantly increased sucrose concentration and WUE, but reduced root yield from 101.37-103.55 to 80.09-81.73\u00a0t ha\n                      <jats:sup>-1<\/jats:sup>\n                      under sever water deficit (55% Etc).Hydrogel application significantly enhanced root yield (88.12-96.39\u00a0t ha\n                      <jats:sup>-1<\/jats:sup>\n                      ), sugar yield (12.65-15.52\u00a0t ha\n                      <jats:sup>-1<\/jats:sup>\n                      ), sucrose content, and WUE while reducing juice impurities. Although the irrigation \u00d7 hydrogel interaction was not statistically significant (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;gt; 0.05), the combination of moderate deficit irrigation (85% ETc) with 10\u201315 kg ha\n                      <jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>\n                      hydrogel consistently provided the most favorable balance between productivity, water savings, and economic performance. In contrast, full irrigation combined with 15\u00a0kg ha\n                      <jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>\n                      hydrogel achieved the highest net return, whereas moderate deficit irrigation without hydrogel produced the greatest benefit-cost ratio.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1913358","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T05:28:00Z","timestamp":1787549280000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hydrogel-assisted deficit irrigation improves sugar beet yield, quality, and water-use efficiency in arid sandy loam soils"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Lamy","family":"Hamed","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environment and Agricultural Natural Resources, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University","place":["Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eman I. 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