Efeect of Rationalization Irrigation Water Use and Ridge Width on Wheat and Its Some Water Relations

Abstract

Field experiment was carried out at Dar El-Ramad farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Egypt during 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons. The trials aiming at investigating the effects of ridge width as planting in wide ridges 120 cm (beds), 60 cm ridges and flat planting (basins) and irrigation scheduling regimes, based on 1.0, 0.8 and 0.6 coefficients of Cumulative Pan Evaporation (C.P.E.) records on yield, yield components and some crop -water relations of wheat variety, Giza 168. A split plot design with four replications was used in both seasons. The obtained results showed that planting in 120 cm ridges (beds) and irrigation at 1.0 C.P.E., gave the highest averages of spike number m -2 , grains spike -1 , 1000-grain weight, straw yield (7411 and 7289 kg ha -1 ), and grain yield (6761 and 6581 kg ha -1 ) in the two successive seasons, respectively. The lowest averages of yield and its components were obtained from flat planting (basins) and irrigation at 0.6 C.P.E., in both seasons. Seasonal consumptive use (ET C ) averages were 42.48 and 41.14 cm in 1 st and 2 nd seasons, respectively. The highest ET C values were recorded with the interaction (R 3 I 1 ), whereas, the lowest values resulted from the interaction (R 1 I 3 ). Daily ET C rates were low during November and December, then increased during January and February, to reach its maximum values during March and then declined again till harvesting at April. The crop coefficient (K C ) values (averages of the two seasons) were 0.47, 0.55, 0.65, 0.73, 0.93 and 0.51 for, Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. and Apr., respectively. The highest water use efficiency, i.e., 1.61 and 1.62 kg grains m -3 water consumed were obtained from (R 1 I 1 ) treatments in first and second seasons, respectively. Key words: wheat yield, yield components, ridge width, rationalization, water consumption, water use efficiency. INTRODUCTIONWheat is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes making it the second mostproduced cereal after maize with 1.03 billion tonnes (FAO stat, 2016). Irrigation management plays an important role in the agriculture strategy, due to the limited water resources and the expansion of the water demand. Water use rationalization in irrigation can be achieved throughout many agricultural