CHARACTERIZING WATER DISTRIBUTION OF FURROW IRRIGATION TO IMPROVE SOIL PRODUCTIVITY IN NORTH NILE DELTA OF EGYPT

Abstract

Field trials were conducted at Sakha farm, Kafr EL-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt to find the best interaction between furrow design, cut-off irrigation, Alternative furrow irrigation, discharge and phosphorus fertilization to enhance faba bean productivity and profit (Net Return) of North Nile Delta soils. Design and evaluate the effect off cut off irrigation (100 % (I1), 90 % (I2) and 85 % (I3) from furrow length) and alternative furrow irrigation (I4) with 4 lps/m irrigation discharge and four fertilization treatments; F1 (100% Rp, as control), F2 (75 % Rp +Phosphorien), F3 (65 % Rp+ Phosphorien) and F4 (55 % Rp+ Phosphorien) on infiltration characteristics, intake family and chosen irrigation parameters with post irrigation of feba bean crop. The results showed that, the infiltration rate decreased rapidly at elapsed time 4 hours in the two studied seasons and individual regression is considered representative of the soil intake conditions. The distribution uniformity for applied water is more than 0.9 under different cut-off irrigation and alternative furrow irrigation. Application efficiency increased as intake family decreased and is the best discharge management for furrow inflow rate at 2 lps/m. The measured irrigation time, and advance time was higher than the designed. While the designed recession time, opportunity time and the ratio between irrigation time and advance time were higher than measured values. The ratio of inflow time to advance time for design parameters is more than 2 meanwhile, the design is valid in studied soil. The highest ratio was obtained with cut-off at 85% from furrow length. It can be concluded that the highest values of irrigation application efficiency were obtained with cut-off at 85% from furrow length for design and measured parameters. Concerning the economic evaluation, I4 combined with F3 achieved the highest values of net return and benefit cost ratio followed by combined treatments I3F3, while the lowest values of specific cost was detected with I4F3.