Nitrogen and water are crucial factors that determine the growth and yield of barley, especially in arid regions with scarce water resources and less fertile soil with poor organic matter content. Optimizing these factors is essential for developing integrated soil, water, and nutrient management practices for resource-efficient barley production. The study evaluated interactive effects of irrigation, nitrogen application rates, tillage systems and mulch on dry matter production, total nitrogen uptake, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and nitrogen recovery efficiency (NRE) of barley in Kuwait. The study was conducted at the KISR Station for Research and Innovation (29.3156° N, 47.8403° E), Kuwait, using conventional and minimum tillage systems with and without mulch, two irrigation levels (75% and 100% crop evapotranspiration, ETc), and two nitrogen rates (50 and 100 kg N ha^-1). The study, which employed ¹5N isotope tracer technique, demonstrated higher fertilizer use efficiency, percentage of nitrogen derived from fertilizer and fertilizer N yield under 75% ETc and 50 kg N ha^-1 under conventional tillage without mulch. However, the minimum tillage system without mulch reported the highest dry matter and nitrogen uptake displaying fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency of 37% under 100% ETc combined with 50 kg N ha^-1. Higher nitrogen use and recovery efficiencies were observed with a moderate nitrogen application rate across treatments in barley, whereas increasing nitrogen from 50 to 100 kg N ha^-1 did not yield a proportional increase in dry matter or nitrogen uptake. Soil-derived nitrogen contributed primarily to plant nitrogen uptake, highlighting the role of soil nitrogen mineralization under minimum tillage systems. Thus, minimum tillage without mulch, combined with adequate irrigation and moderate nitrogen application rates, was found to be the most suitable management practice for enhancing barley productivity and total nitrogen uptake under the arid conditions of Kuwait.