Influence of deficit irrigation and soil mulch on chili pepper production and water-saving under pulse drip irrigation | ||
| Sinai Journal of Applied Sciences | ||
| Article 2, Volume 14, Issue 3, May and June 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Researches | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/sinjas.2025.380586.1316 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Mariam Tawfik Abd-Elsalam* 1; Ahmed Fathy Khedr2; Hazem Sayed Mehawed3; Youssry Ibrahim Abdallah4; Mohamed S. ElKasass5 | ||
| 11 قسم الأراضى والمياه- كلية العلوم الزراعية البيئية- جامعة العريش- مصر | ||
| 2Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt | ||
| 3Department of On-Farm Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Research, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Egypt | ||
| 4Soil and Water Dept., Fac. Environ. Agric Sci. Arish Univ., Arish., North Sinai | ||
| 5Dept. Soil and water, Fac. Environ. Agric. Sci., Arish Univ., Egypt. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This study was performed to maximize Field Water Use Efficiency (FWUE), optimize water-saving, and achieve economic benefits for chili pepper crop in Northern Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. The treatments of irrigation water regimes were (W1,100%; W2,80%; W3,60% of Crop Evapotranspiration ETc), three drip irrigation pulses (P1, one continuous drip irrigation pulse; P2, two irrigation pulses with 30-min intervals; and P3, three irrigation pulses with 15-min intervals) the irrigation was applied every 48 h, and two soil cover conditions: bare soil with no-mulch (NM), and olive pomace mulch (M). The experimental design was split split plots with three replications. The results showed that chili pepper Marketable Yield (MY) was negatively affected in a linear relationship (R2 ≥ 0.8773) by water stress conditions. The highest value of FWUE was 6.4 kg.m-3, it was achieved by W2MP2 treatment. Furthermore, applying W2MP2 treatment had no significant reduction in the MY and economic return of chili pepper compared to full irrigation treatment W1MP2. Therefore, W2MP2 treatment is recommended to use for achieving 20% water-saving (625.95 m3/fed/season ~ 1,489.8 m3/ha/season) with proper economic Benefit Cost ratio BC of 6.8 under North Sinai conditions for chili pepper production. This research highlights the significance of irrigation water savings strategy using pulse drip irrigation, for other crops, irrigation treatments, and geographic locations under arid conditions. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| water deficit; economic analysis; field water use efficiency | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 5 |
||
