EVALUATION OF PARTIAL ROOT ZONE DRYING IRRIGATION UNDER GATED PIPE FOR CORN CROP

Gomaa, A. H.; Elkhatieb, S.  I.; Samak, A. A.

doi:10.21608/maje.2019.156116

EVALUATION OF PARTIAL ROOT ZONE DRYING IRRIGATION UNDER GATED PIPE FOR CORN CROP

Document Type : original papers

Authors

¹ Prof. of Agricultural Engineering, Fac. of Agric., Menoufia Univ.

² Head of Research, Agric. Eng. Research Institute, A.R.C., Dokki, Giza

³ Associate Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia University

10.21608/maje.2019.156116

Abstract

Now days, Egypt is suffering from the scarcity of fresh water. Egypt is one of the event states under the water poverty line, who is identified as less than 1000 m³ per capita per year due to the existence of dry climatic conditions in most parts of the country and limited available water resources, optimization and saving of water consumption have vital importance. The main goal of this research was to study the effect of PRD on corn yield,water distribution efficiency andwater use efficiency compared with conventional irrigation. Field experiment was conducted during the 2017 growing season at the Agricultural research station, Etay-El-Baroud, El-Behera Governorate (Etay-El-Baroud area 6 m above sea level, 30˚ 88 / N and 30˚ 66 / E). Corn crop was planted under irrigation regimes partial root zone drying (PRD) alternate partial root zone drying (APRD), fixed partial root zone drying (FPRD) and conventional irrigation (CI) comparing with control irrigation, under two level of land leveling (0.05% - 0.1%), and three water cutting times. The experimental area was irrigated by 152 mm diameter of PVC gated pipes. The results indicated that, the APRD achieved the highest value of corn production (about 7.85 Mg ha^-1) at applied water of water cutting time when reached to the end of furrow plus 5 min storage (Q₃) under slope 0.1% and improving water use efficiency (WUE) at applied water of water cutting when reached before 5 m the end of furrow (Q₂) was 1.73 kg m^-3 under slope 0.1%. Also, the APRD saved about 37.16 % of applied water (Q₂) at slope 0.1%.

Keywords