Drip irrigation is a useful practice to enhance water and fertilizer nitrogen (N) use efficiency. However, the use of drip irrigation to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2<\/sub>O) emissions in agricultural systems globally is uncertain. Here, we performed a global meta-analysis of 485 field measurements of N2<\/sub>O emissions from 74 peer-reviewed publications prior to March 2021, to quantify the fertilizer-induced N2<\/sub>O emission factor (EF) of drip irrigation and examine the influencing factors of climate, crop, soil properties, and source and rate of fertilizer N application. The results showed that drip irrigation reduced (p<\/em>\u00a0<\u00a00.05) N2<\/sub>O emissions by 32% and 46% compared to furrow and sprinkler irrigation systems, respectively. The overall average EF with drip irrigation was 0.35%, being two-thirds lower than the IPCC Tier I default value of 1% (kg N2<\/sub>O-N\/kg added fertilizer N). The EF was not significantly affected by climate, crop, soil texture, soil organic carbon content, and pH. The EF was also not significantly (p<\/em>\u00a0>\u00a00.05) affected by synthetic N fertilizer source despite a lower numerical value with enhanced efficiency than conventional fertilizers. The EF increased significantly (p<\/em>\u00a0<\u00a00.001) with N addition rate in a binomial distribution. Using the IPCC default EF overestimated N2<\/sub>O emissions inventories for drip-irrigated cropping systems by 7614 and 13,091\u00a0Mg\u00a0per\u00a0year for China and the globe, respectively. These results indicate that drip irrigation should be recommended as an essential N2<\/sub>O mitigation strategy for irrigated crop production.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/avital.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/10.1111_gcb.15636-1-1024x1005.jpg\")
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