Optimizing water productivity for Menara olive cultivar: Exploring the impact of regulated and sustained deficit irrigation strategies in Morocco

Abstract

The agricultural sector in Morocco faces drought challenges due to limited water resources, necessitating the development of irrigation strategies targeted at increasing water production. In this regard, the olive sector can adopt deficit irrigation strategies, to achieve sustainable management practices that improve water productivity and save water used for irrigation. In pursuit of this aim, an experiment was carried out in an olive orchard over two consecutive years (2021 and 2022), comparing water productivity (WP) of four treatments of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and two treatments of sustained deficit irrigation (SDI), with fully irrigated trees. The results indicated that over time the RDI strategy, particularly in the T4 treatment, makes it feasible to conserve a substantial amount of irrigation water, approximately 40% during the phase when pit hardening occurs, and 20% during sensitive periods, all without compromising fruit yield. However, the SDI strategy, with its limited water availability, leads to a decline in the fruit yield of Menara olive trees. Out of these treatments, the SDI strategy led to the most substantial decrease in WP, with reductions ranging from 19% to 33% compared to the control T0.