Assessment of controlled drainage management under water scarcity

الملخص EN

Preliminary studies conducted to the use of water for agricultural production in water scarce regions requires innovative and sustainable measures.

Research and an appropriate transfer of technologies are two elements to achieve that.

This paper discusses the benefits and challenges of the use of controlled drainage, to supplement contribute in crop water needs in the North Delta of Egypt.

Controlled drainage can play an important role to save water and nutrients and to improve and optimize downstream water availability and quality.

The experiment was conducted at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate,31° 05′ 32.2′′ N and 30° 55′ 32′′.

8 E during 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons.

The objective of the study was to find out the impact of controlled sub surface drainage on applied water saving and sugar beet (V.

Nada) productivity.

A farm, 4 feddan (1.7 hectares) was divided into five plots and planted sugar beet.

One of the plots had a free tile drainage system at 1.20 m depth, and others plots were installed with a controlled drainage system at 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 m.

Data showed that, using controlled drainage saved 17, 12, 8 and 3.3 % of the traditional applied water in 2013 season and 18, 13, 6.4 and 3.9 % in 2014 season for 40, 60, 80 and 100 cm depth of water table, respectively, compared to 120 cm depth of water table level.

Furthermore, the values of contribution of water table were 22 and 21.8 and 12 % for first season In the second season, same trend of contributions values were 14, 16.9 and 11.2 % for 40, 60, 80 cm of water table depth, respectively.

These shallow groundwater levels contribute, on average over various soils and crops, 22% to the crop water requirements.

Hence, the improvements in irrigation efficiency called for in the context of improved water management can be one of the Climate Smart Agriculture measures called for by FAO in responding, where appropriate, to global climate change impacts on agriculture.

The study indicated that, the highest average values of root yield (23.364 and 21.337 ton/fed) were obtained at 40 and 60cm depth of water table in 2013 season and (20.821, 19.755 ton/fed) in 2014 season, while the lowest values 17.650 and 14.639 ton/fed in2013 and 2014 seasons at the control plot of 120 cm depth of water table.

The effect of controlled drainage at 40 cm depth on sugar beet crop can be arranged from the economic evaluation point of view in descending order as controlled drainage: T 40 > T 60 > T 80 > T 100 > T 120 cm depth of water table.