Assessment of the Water Needs of Apricot and Olive Crops Under Arid Climatic Conditions: Case Study of Tinibaouine Region (Northeast of Algeria)

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The Tinibaouine region, located in north-eastern Algeria on the borders of the Batna-Belezma Mountains, is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate with an average annual rainfall not exceeding 465 mm and an average annual temperature of around 22 ° C. This region is characterized by the cultivation of apricots as essential crop followed by that of olives, whose plots are all irrigated with the Tinibaouine spring water. These are 450 Ha of trees for apricot and 108 Hectare for olives which constitute the principal revenue of the citizens of this small village. This paper estimated the crop reference and actual evapotranspiration (ETO) respectively and the irrigation water requirement of apricot trees and olive trees. The long recorded climatic data, crop and soil data, effective water allocation and planning, the information about crop water requirements, irrigation withdrawals were computed with the Cropwat model which is based on the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Penman-Monteith method was used to estimate ETo. Crop coefficients (Kc) from the phenomenological stages of apricot and olive were applied to adjust and estimate the actual evapotranspiration ETc through a water balance of the irrigation water requirements (IR). The results showed that the annual reference evapotranspiration (ETO) was estimated at 3.71mm / day. The irrigation requirements were estimated at 35800 m 3 / hectare for apricot, 6980 m 3 / hectare for olive, also Irrigation needs estimated on land at 14185, 05 m 3 / hectare for olive and apricot.