Abstract
Filed experiment was carried out in land near Ramtha Wastewater Treatment Plant during growing seasons of 2010 and 2011 to determine the effects of using treated wastewater on plant growth, seed yield and yield components of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under trickle irrigation. Randomized complete block design (RCBD) for three irrigation treatments namely; I1= Full irrigation (Actual crop coefficient), I2= 80% of full irrigation and I3= 60% of full irrigation randomized over three blocks. The application efficiency of trickle irrigation system was in the range of 88.2 to 90.8%. The applied irrigation water was 4990, 3992 and 2994 m3 ha-1 in 2010 and 5505, 4404 and 3303 m3 ha-1 in 2011 for I1, I2 and I3 irrigation treatments, respectively. Full irrigation treatment (I1) gave the highest plant height, head diameter, number of seeds plant-1, total weight of seeds plant-1, 1000 seeds weight, and seed and oil yield. Key words: Sunflower production, water shortage, reclaimed wastewater reuse, oilseed crops.
Highlights
The water availability in arid and semi-arid areas is becoming a main factor to meet the challenges of increasing population
Randomized complete block design (RCBD) for three irrigation treatments namely; I1= Full irrigation (Actual crop coefficient), I2= 80% of full irrigation and I3= 60% of full irrigation randomized over three blocks
The scarcity of water resources is one of the major challenges for Jordan, and a limiting factor for economic development for agriculture sector, additional stress on the water resources comes from population growth, which reaches about 9.5 millions in the end of 2015 as per the population, and housing census report released in late February 2016 (Department of statistics, 2016)
Summary
The water availability in arid and semi-arid areas is becoming a main factor to meet the challenges of increasing population. Twenty seven wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) distributed in Jordan to treat domestic wastewater. Effluent water from these plants is consider an important part of water budget due to water scarcity, and mainly used for unrestricted agricultural production such as forage. Irrigation with wastewater significantly increased the concentrations of Ca, Mg and Na in leaves of sunflower plants (Khan et al, 2009).Crop irrigation with treated wastewater represents ecologically sound method for its removal to the environment. Khan et al (2009) found that the disc diameter, number of seeds per plant, plant weight and 1000 seed weight were significantly increased by the application of treated wastewater compared to either freshwater and/or freshwater with essential nutrients (NPK). The present study was undertaken to study the effects of using treated wastewaters through surface trickle irrigation on plant growth, seed yield and yield components of sunflower plants
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