Effect of Irrigation Systems, Pulse Irrigation Technique and Cobalt Application on Productivity and Water use Efficiency of Tomato Plants Grown in New Reclaimed Soil

Abstract

Egypt is one of the countries facing serious shortage of water resources, so it is advised to evaluate new possible approaches to minimize the plant water consumption and hence to rationalize irrigation water use. Realizing the need of water use optimization in the context of water scarcity and increasing agricultural productivity, this can be achieved by choosing the proper water management and improving plant-soil properties. So that a study was carried out at the Experimental Farm of the Water Studies and Research Complex (WSRC) Station, National Water Research Center, Toshka -Abu simbel city, Egypt during the two growth seasons of 2015 and 2016. The experiment aimed to test suitability of new irrigation system approach (integral drip irrigation), influence of cobalt application and pulse technique on water use efficiency (WUE) and tomato yield grown in newly reclaimed soils.In this study, results demonstrated that the individual influence of using the integral drip irrigation system (IDI) caused significant increases in tomato yield and water use efficiency more than individual influence of cobalt application and pulse technique. The results indicated also that using cobalt application and pulse technique under integral drip irrigation system caused increases in tomato yield by 641.9 % from the lowest average value which had been recorded in control treatment under subsurface irrigation system. Thus, we can conclude that integral drip irrigation system is more suitable under Toshka climatic condition to improve water consumption and caused significant increases in tomato yield and water use efficiency especially when cobalt application and pulse technique are used. This treatment gives the highest net return and benefit-cost ratio to the farmers.