Response of some faba bean genotypes to irrigation water deficit grown in sandy soil

Abstract EN

Field experiments were conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture, (Saba-Basha) - Alexandria University, Egypt during winter growing seasons of 2017and 2018.

Drip irrigation system was used in sandy soil to rate the irrigation water usage and increase its use efficiency, and then maximize Faba beans productivity under water deficit conditions.

Four Egyptian Faba bean ecotypes and a commercial cultivar (Cleopatra) were grown under a drip irrigation system for evaluation under water deficit conditions.

Four irrigation rate treatments were applied; i.

e.

, 100% , 80% , 60% , and 40% of the ET₀.

The results revealed thatthe tested Faba bean genotypes differed among themselves in most of the studied traits, whether the vegetative characters, yield, and its component traits and pod characteristics.

Most of the studied characters, especially the vegetative characters, leaves chlorophyll content and pods fresh yield/feddan trait were significantly affected by the irrigation rates.

The obtained results showed that there was a significant decrease in the values of most of these characters by reducing irrigation rates from 3167 (100% of the ET₀) down to 1267 m³ / fed.

(40% of the ET₀) in the first season and from 3100 (100% of the ET₀) down to 1240 m³/fed.

(40% of the ET₀) in the second season.

The results showed that the Cleopatra cultivar was the best-tested genotype in terms of irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE).

Also, the same cultivar was significantly superior to most of the tested Faba bean ecotypes in terms of growth vigor and productivity, even with irrigation water shortage, down to 2534 m³ / fed.

or 2480 m³ / fed.

during the first and second seasons (80% of the ET₀), respectively.

The results of this study showed that, under the conditions of this experiment, it is possible to rationalize irrigation water usage by 20.00% from the common irrigated treatment to reach the highest irrigation water use efficiency even with a decrease of yield, especially in semi-arid areas with limited water.