Effect of Alternate-Long Furrows Irrigation on Calcareous Soils Productivity

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted along two successive seasons of winter (2004/2005) and summer (2005) at Maryout Experimental Station of the Desert Research Center, to evaluate the performance of alternate-long furrow irrigation system, using three irrigation water inflow rates on faba bean and sunflower crops productivity grown in calcareous soil. The experiments carried out in a split plot design with four replicates at random procedure. Irrigation system treatments were used as the main plots (120 m length with longitudinal soil surface slope 0.25%) namely: every long-furrow irrigation (EFI), and alternate long-furrow irrigation (AFI). Three different water inflow rates designated as Q1, Q2, and Q3 represented the sub plots: 105, 90, and 65 lpm/furrow, respectively. The irrigation performance was evaluated through application efficiency (AE%) and distribution uniformity (DU) parameters. Irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) was estimated, which is related to water management by different treatments. The obtained results indicated that application of AFI led to high significant interrelations between the values of seed yield and increases in AE% and DU values compared with EFI treatments. The highest mean DU values in 1 st. and 2 nd. seasons were 0.85 and 0.83 obtained by Q2 and Q1 treatments, respectively. Both faba and sunflower seed yield had significant increases with increasing the inflow rates under both studied irrigation systems. The highest yield mean value, with faba bean season, was 1046.5 kg/fed., while with sunflower season; it was 659.95 kg/fed. obtained by (AFI+Q1) treatment. The highest IWUE mean value, with faba bean season, was 0.83 kg/m 3 , while with sunflower season; it was 0.27 kg/m 3. obtained by (AFI+Q3) treatment.

Impact of Different Surface Irrigation Techniques on Cotton Productivity and Water Saving

“…Average Wa values over the two growing seasons were presented in Table (2 Considering irrigation intervals, lowest seasonal amount of water applied (Wa) with AFI treatments as compared to EFI might be due to the great reduction of wetted surface in AFI; almost half of the soil surface is wetted in AFI as compared to EFI. This result supports the outcome obtained by Hiekal et al (2009), who found that AFI methods can supply water in a way that greatly reduces the amount of wetted surface, which leads to less evapotranspiration and less deep percolation. The amount of (Wa) with surge alternative techniques were less than EFI and AFI.…”