Every-Other-Furrow Irrigation with Different Irrigation Intervals for Grain Sorghum

Abstract

The water stress effects caused by every-other-furrow irrigation on yield may be alleviated by more frequent irrigation intervals. This research was conducted to determine yield and water use efficiency of grain sorghum under fixed and variable every-other-furrow and every furrow irrigations at different irrigation intervals and shallow and deep water table conditions. Water needs of grain sorghum grown on a fine-texture soil may not be met by using Every-Other Furrow Irrigation (EOFI) especially under 15 and 20 day irrigation intervals. The water stress decreased the grain yield mainly through decreasing the number of grains per cluster and in a lesser degree by decrease in 1000-seed weight. The clay soil with a layer of high clay content at depth of 70-100 cm and shallow water table may restrict the root growth and consequently the longer irrigation intervals with greater soil water stress can cause lower grain yield in these conditions. However, more frequent EOFI using 10 day intervals has produced very similar results with only a marginal reduction in crop yield. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference in grain yield between fixed and variable every-other -furrow irrigations. In general, at given applied water, the relative grain yield with respect to the maximum grain yield of sorghum at EOFI was higher than those at EFI. At relative applied water of 85% (mild deficit irrigation), EOFI may be recommended to obtain the same grain yield as that of EFI with full irrigation. Furthermore, it may result in 23% more grain yield than that obtained by EFI with the same amount of applied water as deficit irrigation.

Impact of alternate furrow irrigation with different irrigation intervals on yield, water use efficiency, and economic return of corn

“…The substantial GY decrease in the AFI14 treatment may be due to the small amount of applied irrigation water, which did not match full corn water requirements, caused water stress, and consequently reduced crop yield. This finding is similar to results obtained by Sepaskhah and Khajehabdollahi (2005) and Sepaskhah and Ghasemi (2008) for grain sorghum. On the other hand, AFI with more frequent events at 7-d intervals (AFI7) proved to be superior by increasing GY by 8.9% more than EFI based on a two-season mean.…”

“…This may be attributed to the better availability of soil moisture during the irrigation cycle for AFI7 (Figure 1), which enhanced water and nutrient uptake and doubtless reflected on final GY. This result confirms the results found by Abdel-Maksoud et al (2002), Sepaskhah and Khajehabdollahi (2005), Sepaskhah and Parand (2006), Sepaskhah and Ghasemi (2008) for grain sorghum; Nasri et al (2010).…”

Optimization of Irrigation Water Distribution Using the Mga Method and Comparison With a Linear Programming Method

“…So, by applying a 35% water deficit, proper results could be obtained for WP. This agrees with different proposed water deficit percentages in different surface irrigation methods (Sepaskhah and Ghasemi, 2008;Sepaskhah and Hosseini, 2008;Sarai Tabrizi et al, 2012;Sepaskhah and Tafteh, 2012;Tafteh and Sepaskhah, 2012). Another important water management index is gross water productivity which depends mainly on irrigation efficiency (Perry, 2007;Heydari, 2014), and it is less affected by manner of water distribution.…”

Alternate furrow irrigation can radically improve water productivity of okra

“…It shows that the difference in okra crop yield obtained with CFI and AFI was non-significant (p>0.05). A slight reduction in crop yield with AFI compared to CFI was also reported by Majeedano (2012), Bakker et al (1995), Sepaskhah and Ghasemi (2008), and Rafiee and Shakarami (2010). Crabtree et al (1985) also found a yield reduction in sorghum and soybeans when using AFI.…”