Abstract
Jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) is an annual crop grown for human consumption of its nutritious leaves in many regions of the world. Despite its importance for household food security and farmers’ income, reliable information on the crop’s water requirements is still quite scarce. To overcome this knowledge gap, the irrigation needs of jute mallow grown in the Akkar region in Syria were investigated. The analysis focused on a three-year period (2017–2019) where the SIMDualKc model was calibrated and validated for simulating soil water contents and computing the soil water balance in jute mallow plots irrigated with basin and drip methods. The model was further used to determine the probabilities of the demand for irrigation water in scenarios considering different crop season lengths, irrigation methods, and application depths over a longer period of 23 years (1998–2020). The SIMDualKc model was able to simulate soil water contents measured in the field plots, returning root mean square error values lower than 0.001 m3 m-3 and modeling efficiencies ranging from 0.358 to 0.812. The calibrated basal (non-stressed) crop coefficients (Kcb) were 0.15, 0.95, and 0.95 for the initial (Kcb ini), mid-season (Kcb mid), and end-season (Kcb end) stages, respectively. The crop was harvested twice per season, with the drip treatments presenting the highest water productivity and economic indicators. In contrast, the basin treatment resulted in substantial percolation losses, which affected yields and indicators. Although net irrigation requirements showed a large variation for the extremes of the long-term weather time series, differences between the years representing average water demand and those representing very high water demand were only found for the drip irrigation scenarios. This study contributes to improving irrigation water management of jute mallow in the Syrian Akkar region, and for the sustainability of local production systems.
Highlights
Corchorus is a commercially important genus of the Malvaceae family, which comprises more than fifty species with different ethno botanical applications (Kumari et al, 2019)
Considering the brief review above, the objectives of this study are: (i) to simulate soil water contents in jute mallow plots irrigated with basin and drip methods using the SIMDualKc model during three growing seasons (2017–2019); (ii) to derive the crop coefficients for jute mallow grown in the Syrian Akkar plain using the dual Kc approach; (iii) to evaluate the components of the soil water balance from a water saving and economic perspective; and (iv) to define seasonal irrigation thresholds based on the crop’s net irrigation requirements computed using a long-term weather time series that may serve as guidelines for defining future water saving policies
The higher Kc into the basal crop coefficient (Kcb) ini value relative to the second cycle resulted from the larger fc value (0.50) of plants remaining in the field after the first cut, with the crop already well-established when compared with the period after sowing (Table 4)
Summary
Corchorus is a commercially important genus of the Malvaceae family, which comprises more than fifty species with different ethno botanical applications (Kumari et al, 2019). In Syria, jute mallow is mainly produced as a leafy vegetable crop in the governorates of Hama (in the Al-Ghab depression), Tartus, and Latakia, where climate conditions, the land organization in smallhold ings, and the proximity of highly dense urban areas that provide for market opportunities favor the production of profitable vegetable crops (Chard, 1981; Wattenbach, 2006) In these regions, the cultivated area sums close to 1.4 M ha representing 10.2% of the Syrian cultivated land, of which 82% are irrigated (Wattenbach, 2006; CBS, 2019).
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