Crop water productivity for sunflower under different irrigation regimes and plant spacing in Gezira Scheme, Sudan

Abstract

Two field experiments with Sunflower on deep cracking soil with heavy clay (vertisol) were conducted at Gezira Research Station Farm during two executive winter seasons, in WadMedani, Sudan. The crop was sown in the third week of November and in the first week of December for seasons 2012 and 2013 respectively. The experimental design was split plot design with three replicates. The Sunflower hybrid tested in the study was Hysun 33. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of three different irrigation intervals of 10, 15 and 20 days and two intra-row plant spacings of 30 cm and 40 cm on yield and yield components of Sunflower. The seed yields obtained from the different treatments were in the ranges of 1890-3300 kg/ha and 1590-3290 kg/ha for the first and second season respectively. The corresponding computed on average crop water productivity was in the range of 0.31-0.43 kg/m3. The study clearly indicated that the highest seed yield was obtained when the crop was sown at 40 cm plant spacing and irrigated every 10 days. The highest crop water productivity was achieved from irrigation every15 days in both planting spacings