Improvement of Soil and Water Productivity for Sugar Beet under Salt Affected Soils at North Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

A field trial was conducted during the two consecutive growing seasons of 2016/17 and 2017/18 at Sakha Agricultural Research Station Farm, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. The aim of this current study was to evaluate the effect of four irrigations treatments; cut-off at 100 (I1, traditional practice), 90%(I2), 80% (I3) and 70% (I4) from furrow length and five fertilization treatments; F1 (90 Kg N Fed.-1), F2 (67.5 kg N+3 ton compost fed.-1), F3 (45 kg N+5 ton compost fed.-1), F4 (22.5 Kg N+7 ton compost fed-1) and F5 (10 ton compost fed.-1) (ha =2.4 fed) on some water parameters, some soil properties and yield of sugar beet. The experiments were designed as spilt plot with three replications. The main plots were occupied by cut-off irrigation, while subplots were devoted to fertilization rates. The main results can be summarized as follows: The highest values of applied water (3678 and 3562 m3 fed-1); water consumptive use (2381 and 2210 m3 fed-1) and water stored (2525 and 2456 m3 fed-1) were recorded under I1 (local farmers practice) in the 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest values of applied water (3168 and 3094 m3 fed.-1); water consumptive use (2218 and 2062 m3 fed-1) and water stored (2325 and 2335 m3 fed-1) were recorded with I4 in the 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively. The highest values of water saving was recorded under I4 as average of the two growing seasons (12.14 cm and 11.14 cm, respectively) which saved about 100*106 m3 water in sugar beet fields at the national level (200*103 fed) comparing with check treatment (I1). The highest values of irrigation application and consumptive use efficiencies in both seasons were achieved under irrigation treatment I4 but the lowest values were recorded under irrigation treatment I1 in the two studied seasons. Concerning to water productivity ( ) and productivity of irrigation water (PIW), the highest values of (14.09 and 16.74 Kg m-3) and PIW (9.70 and 11.61 kgm-3) were recorded under I3 in the first and second seasons, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest values of (12.16 and 14.99 kgm-3) and IPW (7.88 and 9.30 Kgm-3) were recorded with I1 in both seasons, respectively. Concerning to the role of fertilization in and PIW, F2 treatment achieved the highest values of (14.38 and 17.38 kg m-3) and PIW (9.99 and 11.23 kg m-3), while F4 treatment gave the lowest values of both parameters in both seasons, respectively The soil ECe, SAR and ESP as mean values of both seasons were affected by irrigation cut-off and fertilization treatments. The highest reduction of ECe, SAR and ESP was induced by F5 under I1, while the lowest reduction was recorded with F1 and I4. The highest root yields (18.78 and 20.61 ton fed-1) were achieved with I3, while F5 was the best fertilization treatment (15.76 and 18.13 ton root fed.-1) in both seasons, respectively. So, the highest significant effects of cut- off and fertilization treatments on sugar beet root, shoot and sugar yields in both growing seasons were achieved with I3 and F5. Also, there were high significant effects on such parameters due to the interactions between different treatments.