Irrigation water saving of date palm tree plantations using soil amendments in UAE

Abstract EN

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) tolerates relatively harsh climatic and soil condition in Arab countries.

The annual total irrigation water requirements in the Arab regions is ranging from 73.0 to 95 (m3/tree).

Approximately 70-80 per cent of global freshwater consumption is used in the agricultural sector, yet water use efficiency in many countries is below 50 per cent.

Water saving amendments, are a natural soil mixes and has been developed and used to reduce the amount of water needed in irrigation for date palm farms, to maintain vigorous plants growth.

When mixed in the soil, the material can retain great amounts of water per kg of product.

When the soil dries, the product will release its water to the plant.

Water saving amendments acts as a water reservoir, especially during periods of drought and the stored water is released to the plants.

Using water saving amendments not only save water but also, improve the soil physical properties e.

g.

water holding capacity (WHC) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the treated soil.

In this experiment we used three natural different water conservative materials to study its effects on saving irrigation water under date palm plantations.

Three different levels of water saving materials e, g.

, compost ©, Bio Char (BC) and water saving (WS) product from Emirates Biofertilizers Factory products were used at four different levels e.

g.

5, 10, 15 and 20 kg per date palm tree against control of 7 years old trees grown in Al Salamat research station, Al Ain UAE.

The plants tested were, Date palm trees.

After two years of testing, we found that water saving amendments can save more than 40% of irrigation water.

Our results recommended that, addition of 15 kg/date palm tree can reduce the water needed for irrigation by 40% .

In this research paper, we focused mainly on introducing a natural means of managing irrigation water through soil conditioning, using water saving amendments to be incorporated in soil around the trees to prevent water losses by run off, evaporation and infiltration and to improve the soil physical, chemical and biological properties.

Economic Values of water saved are studied