WATER SAVING USING GATED PIPES UNDER SOME EFFECTIVE IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT NORTH NILE DELTA.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the two summer growing seasons 2009 and 2010 at the Demonstration Field for Modern Irrigation Systems at Sakha Agricultural Research Station. The main objective of this study was to find out some practical effective ways regarding saving water particularly under the present status of water shortage facing Egypt. Gated pipes as improved surface irrigation technique was used for irrigating maize and the studied irrigation practices were; traditional irrigation or every furrow irrigation (EFI-Trt.A), cut-off irrigation (Trt.B), in addition two techniques of alternative furrow irrigation either fixed (FAI-Trt.C) or nonfixed alternate furrow irrigation (EAI-Trt.D). Moreover, two methods regarding computation of irrigation water should be applied; Ibrahim (Trt.E) and Penman-Monteith (Trt.F). Obtained findings indicated that some suitable techniques could be practiced regarding water saving without significant reduction in marketable grain yield. The mean values of maize grain yield can be ranked as; 3.6, 3.4=3.4, 3.3=3.3 and 2.8 ton.fed-1 obtained under treatments; E, B, D, A, C and F, respectively. While the highest water saving of nearly 12% equaled 353 m3.fed-1 or about 880 million m3 at the national level (2.5 million feddan, 1 fed= 0.42 ha) could be obtained by; using gated pipes as improved surface irrigation, laser land leveling and executing either cut-off or alternate irrigation techniques. Moreover, accurate computation of irrigation water should be applied without excess or less than the actual water needs for the growing plants and depending on the availability of climate elements. In this direction, either Ibrahim equation that mainly depending upon pan evaporation and suitable for the studied area or the FAO Penman-Monteith equation could be used in computing irrigation water.