International Journal of Scientific Research in Agricultural Sciences

56-66

Authors: Abdelraouf Ramadan Eid, Ahmed Mohamed El-Farouk, Bakry Ahmed Bakry, M. KH. Elbegawy

As for population of more than 90 million, Egypt cannot meet its need for food as adequate water is not available for crop production .So to identify and adopt measures that will reduce water use and increase crop production, this study was conducted in farmers' fields during 2009/2010–2010/2011to evaluate the water use efficiency and economic viability of sprinkler irrigation system for growing wheat crop. Two field experiments were conducted in the Research and Production Station of the National Research Centre in El-Nubaria El-Behera Governorate. The water-use characteristics of wheat were studied in the field under sprinkler irrigation system. Treatments consisted of two sprinkler irrigation systems, solid set sprinklers (S1) and hand move laterals (S2), and three irrigation frequencies (IF1: once per week; IF2: twice per week, IF3: three times per week). Total irrigation amount values varied from 3924.373 to 4081.3 m3.ha-1 in 2009-2010 and 4313.6 to 4486.2 m3.ha-1 in 2010-2011. The highest seasonal ET was obtained from the S2IF3 treatment in 2010-2011 (5417.1 m3.ha-1); the lowest value was observed in the S1IF1 treatment in 2009-2010 (4513.0 m3.ha-1). On average, the S1IF3 treatment gave the highest grain yield (5832.5 kg.ha-1), whereas S2IF1 treatment gave the lowest grain yield (3332.5 kg.ha-1). IWUE values varied from 1.0 to 1.43 kg.m-3 in 2009-2010 and from 0.87 to 1.34 kg.m-3 in 2010-2011. WUE values varied from 0.87 to 1.19 kg.m-3 in 2009-2010 and from 0.79 to 1.16 kg.m-3 in 2010-2011. Also, under solid set sprinkler irrigation system and irrigation frequency occurred maximum value of net income. For winter wheat in the El-Nubaria, the recommended sprinkler system and irrigation frequency for each event is solid set sprinkler (S1) and irrigation three times per week (IF3).