SUGAR BEET PRODUCTION UNDER DRIP IRRIGATION IN HEAVY CLAY SOIL

Abstract

Sugarbeet is an important crop in Egypt where overuse of water and agro chemicals is a concern in furrow-irrigated areas. Drip irrigation technology, is not well developed for row crops within the old land. Field experiment was carried out in the Experimental farm, Faculty of Agriculture Kaferelsheik University. Egypt, during the successive season 2005/2006.Therefore, the objective of the present work was evaluation of drip irrigation practice for sugar beet production in Delta region and its effect on soil salinity. The present research includes the following factors:- -Irrigation method : drip and furrow irrigation (main treatments); - Irrigation intervals :Three irrigation intervals for drip, once, twice and triple per week, while the intervals for furrow irrigation was 18 days. (sub treatments), and - Length of furrow and drip lines: Three different of furrow and drip lines were used in the present study ( 20; 30 and 40 m). (sub-sub treatments). The experimental design was split-split plot with four replicates. The important results that obtained from the present work were as follows:- - The average value of total water applied was decreased by about of 1.01 and 0.47 % by using 20 and 30 m as a drip line length comparing with 40 m drip line length. - There was no significant difference among the irrigation treatments on average values of root and sugar yield, Where there are no significant differences in the amount of water added to the unit area during the season. - The highest value of water application efficiency was 91.63 % with drip irrigation, 20 m lateral length and once irrigation per week, while the lowest value was 69.10 % with furrow irrigation. - Increasing number of irrigation per week tended to increase field water use efficiency which the values of field water efficiency were 10.83, 9.73 and 9.12 Kg/m3 by using drip irrigation triple, twice and once per week, respectively. - The increasing values of soil salinity were 0.11, 0.20 and 0.26 dsm-1 for irrigation intervals: triple, twice and once per week, respectively. it could be concluded that the salt accumulation in the root zone can be easily leached by increasing more amounts of irrigation water before the start of the next season.