Abstract
Close management of irrigation could have considerable impacts on water resources, especially for cropping systems dominated by corn. The experiment was carried out to compare the influence of porous capsule irrigation (PCI), surface drip irrigation (DI), and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems, with or without mulching, on actual evapotranspiration (ETc act), crop coefficients (Kc single and Kc dual), biomass yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of corn in a semiarid region of Iran. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with the three irrigation systems assigned to the main plots and two mulching (with or without foil type) treatments (M1 and M2) assigned to the sub-plots. The corn ETc act varied significantly (P < 0.05) with the different irrigation systems, being (mm) 389.8 for PCI, 377.0 for DI, and 372.8 for SDI. The highest Kc average and Kcb (0.82 and 1.22) and the lowest Ke (0.12) were observed under the PCI system. The dry and wet biological biomass yields were highest (29.98 and 107 t/ha) under the PCI + M1 treatment, and the lowest (23.19 and 58.54 t/ha, respectively) were under the DI + M2 treatment. The highest WUE (7.89 kg/m3) was also observed under the PCI + M1 treatment; PCI produced the best biological biomass yield, WUE and IWUE in comparison to DI and SDI systems. Accordingly, the PCI system could be a viable alternative to drip irrigation for areas with scarce water resources, particularly for smallholder farmers.
Highlights
Agriculture section is the main consumer in arid and semiarid countries
The total corn ETc act was 379.8, 377.0 and 371.9 mm for Porous capsule irrigation (PCI), drip irrigation (DI) and Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems in the growing seasons, respectively. (Table 4. here) Lowest values of corn ETc act occurred at the initial stage with a value of 3.31, 2.34 and 2.34 mm/day for PCI, DI and SDI systems, during the growing season, respectively
This study evaluated the influence of porous capsule irrigation (PCI), surface drip irrigation (DI) and subsurface drip irrigation systems (SDI) under mulch condition on actual evapotranspiration (ETc act), single and dual crop coefficient (Kc single and Kc dual), yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of corn (Zea mays L.) in the semiarid climate of Iran
Summary
Agriculture section is the main consumer in arid and semiarid countries. This is the first source of exploitation to compete for water (Postel 1992; Ayars et al 2015). Improving irrigation management methods under mulching conditions is a new agricultural water-saving irrigation technology, which can be effective to prevent water loss due to evaporation from the soil surface. A large number of researchers recorded that an increase of crop yield and water use efficiency are improved by application drip irrigation with mulch in different agro-climatic region and soil condition (Biswas et al 2015; Thentu et al 2016; Liu et al 2017; Zhang et al 2017). To improve our ability on corn (Zea mays L.) irrigation management under different localized irrigation systems in arid and semiarid condition, this study aimed to investigate variation of evaporation and transpiration during growth stages, soil evaporation coefficient, and basal crop coefficient in different irrigation systems and climate condition
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