Impact of Climate Change on Wheat Water Consumption in Some Egyptian Regions

Abstract

Wheat is considered one of the most important strategic crops cultivated in Egypt. It is one of the crops that are affected by climate change especially for their water requirements. Therefore, it takes particular attention, especially under the conditions of water scarcity available for irrigation. This work aims to measure the extent of wheat's water consumption affected by climate changes in three governorates representing the Nile Delta and Valley from the north to south of Egypt, namely Gharbia, Assiut, and Aswan. To achieve this goal, coordinates of specific climatic stations were determined to represent climatic zones characteristic of Egypt using the Climwat program. Then, some necessary climatic data were collected to calculate the reference crop evapotranspiration through the modified Penman equation over a period of 40 years started from 1982 up to 2021, using data from the NASA website, and dividing the climatic periods into four epochs, each lasting ten years. Subsequently, all the collected data were entered into the Cropwat program to calculate both the reference and actual evapotranspiration and irrigation schedule for the wheat crop planting in three soil types (sandy, loamy, and clay) in the three subjected governorates. This was done to determine the water requirements and plan for scheduling wheat irrigation scientifically. The results indicated an overall increase in the water requirements for wheat in recent years, especially in the south governorate of Egypt. The research recommends the application of the Cropwat program for scheduling wheat irrigation.