Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Soil Chemistry and Physics Department, Desert Research Center, The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Cairo, Egypt.
2
Department of Water and Irrigation Systems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Abstract
Date palms demonstrate exceptional resilience to water and temperature stress, which significantly affects both yield quantity and quality. Over two consecutive seasons (2022/2023 and 2023/2024), a study was conducted on a private farm in Toshka, Aswan Governorate, Egypt, to examine the impact of irrigation water stress (DI = 100 %, 80 %, and 60 %) and different clay (bentonite) application rates (BCR = 0, 20, and 40 kg palm⁻¹) under three irrigation systems: Oscop drip (OIS), micro-jet (MIS), and bubbler (BIS). The study evaluated crop quality parameters, marketable yield (MY), actual water consumption (ACW), water use efficiency (WUE), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and the yield response factor (Ky) for date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L.). The results showed that the highest marketable yield and most quality parameters, except total soluble solids (TSS), were achieved under OIS with DI = 100 % and BCR = 40 kg palm⁻¹ in both seasons. In contrast, the lowest ACW values—1123.47 mm in 1st season and 1121.12 mm in the second—were recorded under OIS with DI = 60 % and BCR = 40 kg palm⁻¹. The highest WUE and IWUE values, reaching 1.72 and 1.20 kg m⁻³ in the first season and 1.75 and 1.23 kg m⁻³ in 2nd season, were observed under OIS with DI = 80 % and BCR = 40 kg palm⁻¹. Additionally, the lowest Ky values, 0.11 and 0.14 for the first and second seasons, respectively, were obtained under these conditions. This study concludes that implementing OIS with DI = 80 % and BCR = 40 kg palm⁻¹ can reduce irrigation water use by up to 44 % while enhancing marketable yield by 32 % compared to the control treatment (BIS, DI = 100 %, and BCR = 0 kg palm⁻¹).
Keywords
Main Subjects
)
View on SCiNiTO