Irrigation management to improve smallholder’s incomes for saline conditions

Fathia El Mokh 1*, Kamel Nagaz 1, Mohamed Moncef Masmoudi2, Netij Ben Mechlia2

¹ Institut des Régions Arides, 4119 Médenine, Tunisia

²INAT, 43 avenue Charles Nicolle, 2083 Tunis, Tunisia

ABSTRACT

Abstract : In the Mediterranean arid regions, the water limitation is the constraint major for agriculture development. Under this condition, one of the most common water quality concerns for irrigated agriculture is saline. The use of this saline water is increasing with the increasing of water scarcity. Its use without integrate management (soil, crop and water) poses high risks of land degradation and crop productivity reduces. Therefore, this study was considered in southern Tunisia to investigate farmer irrigation practices over two years. The impact of irrigation strategies with saline water (6 dS/m) on yield, soil salinity, water productivity and farmer net return were evaluated. Five crops were considered: barley, carrot, fava bean, pepper and potato. The irrigation strategies based on soil water balance method (SWB) which are full irrigation strategy (FI: restore 100% of the crop evapotranspiration) and deficit treatment (DI70: 70% of the ETc covered) were compared to farmer practice (FM). For both seasons, FM strategy caused a significant increase in soil salinity that affects considerably the yield produced for most of the crops compared to the full and the deficit (30%) water supply strategies. The water restriction of 30% improves the total water productivity without affecting yield significantly especially for barley and faba bean where the yield reduction was ranging from 2.5 to 9.5%. Results showed that the practice of cash crops (potato, carrot and faba bean) which have a short cycle improves considerably the farmer incomes compared to the barley crop. The pepper provides also high economic return for farmer but it consumes more water and has a long growing cycle. Based on this analysis, the farmer income can be improve considerably with better irrigation and crop management.

Key words: Water management, Salinity, Yield, Water productivity, Farmer return.

<}, number={2}, publisher={Aziz ŞATANA} }