To assess the effect of different water application schedules on the growth and yield of lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa), a field experiment was carried out at Golinga Irrigation Site. Four treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design in four replications. The treatments were; TRT1 (adlib application by farmers), TRT2 (100% of the daily ETc applied only in the morning at each growth stage), TRT3 (100% of the daily ETc applied only in the evening at each growth stage) and TRT4 (100% ETc split: 50% of the daily ETc applied in the morning and the other 50% applied in the evening at each growth stage). The daily crop water requirement (ETc) of the crop was calculated for the four stages of growth using the CROPWAT software bearing in mind the area of each bed (16m 2). The data was analyzed using the Genstat Software. The results revealed that plants grown in the TRT4 grew healthier and recorded the highest plant height (23.3cm), number of leaves (9), leaf spread (25.03cm), leaf area index (5.25), and fresh matter weight of leaf (43.0g), yield (28.3t/ha) and water productivity (7.2kg/m). Plants grown in TRT3 recorded the least values for plant height (19.8cm), number of leaves (7), leaf spread (20.9cm), leaf area index (4.1), fresh matter weight of leaf (30.7g), yield (13.9t/ha) and water productivity (3.5kg/m 3). It is recommended that interested lettuce farmers could adopt TRT4 water application schedule since it gave the highest values in all the parameters used for data collection.
In the face of the negative impacts of climate change and the accelerated growth of the global population, precision irrigation is important to conserve water resources, improve rice productivity and promote overall efficient rice cultivation, as rice is a rather water-intensive crop than other crops. For several decades, various water conserving technologies have been studied in order to significantly increase water use efficiency (WUE). The objective of this paper is to review the main technologies and approaches for assessing the water requirements of rice crop in order to contribute to water saving in irrigated rice production, after clarifying the performance indicators of the irrigated systems. Several scientific articles from previous studies were consulted and analyzed. These studies showed that irrigation water conservation includes a wide range of practices, staring from the crop irrigation water requirements assessment to the implementation of the water saving practices on the field. In addition, irrigation water conservation technologies could be categorized into three groups, namely water-conserving irrigation systems, water-saving irrigation methods, and water-conserving agronomic practices. The influence of the individual and combined irrigation water use efficiency tools was highlighted. This paper will enable researchers to acquire knowledge on water-saving methods for estimating the rice crop water requirements and thus allow them to effectively contribute to improve the performance of irrigated rice cultivation systems using various water conservation technologies.
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