Study of the Physicochemical Quality of Irrigation Water in the Rural Commune of Tighassaline (Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco)

Abstract

Morocco considers itself among the countries that have made great efforts in the field of watersavings. In agriculture, initiatives to switch from traditional irrigation to localized drip irrigation are widelyencouraged. This method of water supply allows farmers to save water and nutrients while ensuring betteryields in terms of quantity and quality. However, this production performance cannot be obtained without theobligatory passage to the analysis of all the factors of production. In this context, we evaluated during this studythe physicochemical quality of two wells supplying the irrigation network of an apple tree farm in the ruralcommune of Tighassaline, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco.The results showed that the pH values of the two wells are of the order of 7 and those recorded for the electricalconductivity are between 0.37 ms/cm and 0.55 ms/cm. These results demonstrate the quality of the irrigationwater, almost neutral and without any risk of salinity. These constants are supported by other measurements ofanions and cations contained in the water samples taken. In this regard, the concentration of chloride andsulphate is practically low in the two wells, while the concentration of bicarbonate is twice as high in well 2than in well 1. However, the most abundant cation compared to the others is sodium, with a concentration ofthe order of 1.10 meq/l and 0.9 meq/l for well 1 and well 2 respectively. The following study demonstrates theimportance of these analyzes in the appreciation of one of the main production factors and it proves that thewater from the two wells used to supply the irrigation network of the apple tree farm is very good quality.