Assessing the Effect of Irrigation with Reclaimed Water Using Different Irrigation Techniques on Tomatoes Quality Parameters

Abstract

As the most important resource for life, water has been a central issue in the international agenda for several decades. Yet, the world’s clean freshwater supply is steadily decreasing due to climate change and extensive agricultural water demand for irrigated lands. Therefore, in addition to rational water use, we should use non-traditional water resources like Reclaimed Wastewater (RW). The present experiment was carried out in China over three years (2017, 2018, and 2019) to study the effects of two types of water qualities (reclaimed wastewater (RW) and clean water (CW)), two types of irrigation methods (Full irrigation (FI) and alternate partial root-zone irrigation (APRI)), and two types of irrigation techniques (Furrow irrigation (FUI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI)) on the main tomato fruit quality parameters. The APRI treatments obtained 70% of the FI irrigation water volume. The irrigation treatments of this study were: (1) SDI with APRI; (2) SDI with FI; (3) FUI with APRI; and (4) FUI with FI. These treatments were under RW and CW. Thus, the experiment consisted of eight treatments. The tomato fruit quality parameters studied were vitamin C (VC), total acidity (TA), protein content (PC), and total soluble sugar content (TSS). The results reveal that many measurements under reclaimed water (RW) had the highest values compared with clean water (CW), except in protein content (PC). The vast majority of values measured for PC under CW were slightly greater than the values under RW. Moreover, the results reveal that tomato quality in many measurements under APRI treatments increased compared with FUI. The statistical analysis generally shows that the fruit quality parameters were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected by the interaction between the irrigation treatments. In conclusion, the treatment SDI-APRI under RW can be an efficient irrigation method to reduce the consumption of clean water. Additionally, SDI-APRI offers a safe option because the physical contact between the wastewater, crops, and the farmers is minimized compare with the FUI treatment.