Abstract
Under the semiarid and arid climate of Eastern Europe, accurate estimation of crop water requirement and irrigation scheduling is important for water management and planning. The objectives of this study were to estimate maize water requirement and irrigation scheduling in variable climatic conditions. CROPWAT model is decision support system developed by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and it is used as a practical tool to carry out standard calculations for reference evapotranspiration, crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and also allows helps in planning and decision making in the areas where water resource availability is varying and scarce. The study result indicated that Maize seasonal amounts of irrigation requirements varied from 439.5 to 615.0 mm. Maize actual daily evapotranspiration (ETa) varied from 0.12 to 4.13 mm and from 0.27 to 4.68 mm in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Net irrigation schedule for all growing periods in 2010 was zero for initial and late but for development 138.9 mm and 45.9 mm for mid-stage of the growing period. However, 2011 were zero, 83.7 mm, 178 mm, and 98.2 mm in initial, mid, and development and late stages respectively. Besides in the study area, 2010 was the wettest year but 2011 was determined as the driest year this may cause adverse conditions on maize crop yields quantity and quality. Irrigation requirements for maize should be adjusted to the local meteorological conditions for optimizing maize irrigation requirements and improving maize water productivity under such climatic variable conditions.
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays L.) ranks as the most important crop worldwide in terms of grain production; wheat and rice are the most important for direct human consumption
Various physical properties of the soil at the experimental site are presented in soil data and soil attributes file of CROPWAT8 model below
Crop Water Requirement and Irrigation Scheduling: The result indicated that the lowest minimum temperature was 18oC and -15oC on winter season and the highest maximum temperature reached to 35oC and 36oC in summer for 2010 and 2011 respectively
Summary
Maize (Zea mays L.) ranks as the most important crop worldwide in terms of grain production; wheat and rice are the most important for direct human consumption. Maize seeds are consumed by humans directly or after processing, and are often the main component of animal feed [30]. Sugar syrup, alcohol as biofuel, and feedstock for the manufacturing of plastic are commonly derived from maize seeds. The area devoted to maize and the yield per hectare have been increasing over time, total production was 819 million tons in 2009[9]. It is grown, extensively in temperate regions for grain [12] as well as for silage. The common water application methods include furrow and center pivot irrigation
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