Response of some horticultural crops to irrigation in the semi-arid region of Tunisia

Abstract

Response to a limited water supply was determined for 3 horticultural crops, pepper, melon (cantaloup) and tomato, in the Nebhana Valley, Tunisia. Varying fractions of potential evapotranspiration (PET), as calculated by Penman, were used to define 4 irrigation treatments which were replicated 4 times. The study was conducted on a shallow sandy loam soil in the lower Nebhana Valley, near Monastir. For each of the crops the following production parameters were evaluated: marketable yield; average fruit weight; number of fruits per unit land area. For socio-political reasons, the cost price of the irrigation water to the farmers in the Nebhana Valley is of negligible importance, and thus the economic threshold could be drawn from the relationship between yield and total available water. The marketable yield for pepper, melon and tomato crops was not significantly affected by rationing the seasonal water application volumes to 57, 47 and 67%, respectively, of the calculated PET. To increase the water-use efficiency for the crops studied, limited irrigation is advisable.