Studying the effects of deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy on carrot yield in arid environment

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 42 - 50, 26.10.2017

Kamel Nagaz , Fathia El Mokh Mohamed Moncef Masmoudi Netij Ben Mechlia

https://doi.org/10.26558/ijcst.346749

Cited By: 2

Abstract

The deficit irrigation (DI) as an on-farm
water management strategy was tested for 3-years to determine the water
requirements and productivity, soil salinity and yield for carrot irrigated
with saline water (3.6 dS/m) under actual farming conditions in southern
Tunisia. The irrigation regimes were full (I100) and deficit
(I80 and I60) irrigated with levels of 100, 80 and 60% of ETc when the readily
available water, 35% of total available water (TAW), in the I100 treatment was
depleted, and traditional farmer practice (Farmer). Regulated DI regime where
40% reduction is applied only during ripening stage (I60-ripening) was also
used. Higher soil salinity is observed at harvest
under I60 and Farmer treatments compared to I100. Carrot yield was highest over 3 years for the I100 scheduling technique,
(29.5, 28.7 and 26.8 t/ha) although no significant differences were observed
with the I60-ripening strategy. However, the I80 and
I60 treatments caused significant reductions in carrot yields through a
reduction in roots number and weight in comparison with I100. The farmer’s
method not only caused significant reductions in yield but also resulted in
using 43 to 57 % more water and increased soil salinity. For all treatments,
carrot yields were higher in first than the two following years. Water
productivity (WP) values reflected this difference and varied between absolute
extremes of 3.3 and 9.7 kg/m³. WP was the greatest in the
I60 treatment and the least in the Farmer's strategy. I100 irrigation
strategy provides significant advantage on yield and WP compared to farmer’s
method in carrot production. Therefore, for water-saving purposes, the I100
irrigation scheduling is recommended to optimize the use of saline water in
carrot production and to control soil salinity. Nonetheless, under water
scarcity, irrigation of carrot could be scheduled using I60-ripening and I80
deficit strategies, with some yield reductions (4-15%).

Keywords

salinity, deficit irrigation, carrot, yield

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