EFFECT OF ALTERNATE FURROW IRRIGATION TECHNIQUE AND ANTIOXIDANTS SPRAYING ON CROP WATER PRODUCTIVITY IN THE ALLUVIAL SOIL OF NILE DELTA OF EGYPT | ||||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2011, Page 407-421 PDF (524.99 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2011.55455 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| A. A. Mosa1; A. Y. Ramadan2 | ||||
| 1Soils Dept., Fac. Agric., Mans. Univ., Mansoura, Egypt | ||||
| 2Vegetables Res. Dept., Horticulture Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The main objective of the present study was to find out a simple on-farm irrigation strategy that might enable farmers to increase water productivity under furrow irrigation systems. Therefore, two field experiments were carried out during the two successive seasons of 2007 and 2008, at a private farm, Kaha District, Kalyoubia Governorate, to investigate the efficiency of two improved furrow irrigation techniques as compared with the conventional furrow irrigation system (CFI), which means irrigating all furrows. The examined furrow irrigation techniques were: exchangeable alternate furrow irrigation (EAFI), which means that neighboring two furrows are alternatively watered, and fixed alternate furrow irrigation (FAFI), which means that fixed one of every two furrows is watered. Two antioxidant substances; salicylic acid (in the form of Na-salicylate), and ascorbic acid were foliarly sprayed to find out their prospective effect on mitigating the moderate water stress, which could be happen with using alternate furrow irrigation techniques as compared with water spraying as the control treatment. The used experimental design was split plot with three replicates. Furrow irrigation techniques were presented in the main treatments, and antioxidant substances were allocated in the sup treatments. The obtained results showed that alternate furrow irrigation techniques saved substantial amounts of irrigation water, and EAFI was the superior. There was a significant increase in cabbage fresh yield with using of EAFI. However, a slight decrease was recorded in FAFI as compared with CFI. Crop water use efficiency in alternate furrow irrigation techniques was higher than those of CFI. Antioxidants spraying led to an increase in fresh weight yield and crop water use efficiency. Nitrogen concentration in cabbage was enhanced with alternate furrow irrigation techniques, and EAFI was more efficient in this concern. Meanwhile, these techniques were associated with a decrease in phosphorus and potassium concentrations in plant as compared with CFI. In addition, Antioxidants spraying stimulated the nutritional status of cabbage, and ascorbic acid was the superior. The remained nitrogen in soil was enhanced with alternate furrow irrigation techniques, although a slight increase in soil salinity was observed. In conclusion, it can be recommended that the use of EAFI technique is the most superior to maintain crop water use efficiency in the Egyptian Nile Delta, especially under water scarcity. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Alternate furrow irrigation; Crop water use efficiency; cabbage; Nutritional Status; Nitrogen recovery | ||||
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