Irrigation Water Use Efficiency and Water Productivity of Commercial Sugarcane Hybrids under Water-Limited Conditions

Abstract

Collection HIGHLIGHTS Sugarcane hybrids with improved IWUE have greater scope in sugarcane agriculture as irrigation water is getting scarce.  Among sugarcane hybrids, Co 8371 registered high mean water productivity of 4.18 kg m -3 , followed by Co 85019(3.92 kg m -3 ), while in I 2 , six hybrids had significantly higher water productivity (Co 85019, Co 0212, Co 86249, Co 10026, Co 0218 and Co V92102) above 4 kg m -3 .  Deficit irrigation scheduling (irrigation at recommended interval, with 50% crop evapotranspiration replacement) appears to be far more useful than reducing frequency as well as quantity of irrigation water alone. Hybrid mean water productivity was 3.2, 2.7, and 2.1 kg m -3 in I 0 , I 1 , and I 2 , respectively.ABSTRACT. The escalating deficit rainfall scenario in India indicates that drought is a recurrent phenomenon associated with tropical sugarcane farming, and the availability of irrigation water for sugarcane cultivation will be much less in coming years. To meet the challenge of limited and costly water supply, tropical sugarcane growers will have to find ways of increasing the efficiency of irrigation to maintain high cane yields. More efficient irrigation systems, accurate irrigation scheduling, and the right choice of sugarcane hybrids are potential means of increasing irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), water productivity (WP), and global water security. With the objective of optimizing irrigation water use, a field experiment evaluating the physiological efficiency of commercial sugarcane hybrids for WP in a sandy clay soil under water-limited conditions was conducted during 2016-2017 at the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore, India. The replicated field experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three irrigation levels as the main plot and 33 sugarcane hybrids as subplots. The prevailing climatic conditions during the experiment represented a tropical wet and dry climate, with the wet season lasting from October to December due to the northeast monsoon. The results showed that full irrigation at recommended intervals with 100% crop evapotranspiration (ET) replacement (I 0 ) produced significantly higher cane yield than deficit irrigation at recommended intervals with 50% crop ET replacement (I 1 ) and skipping alternate irrigations with 50% crop ET replacement (I 2 ). The deficit irrigation treatments (I 1 and I 2 ) had declines in cane yield of 41.2% and 56.4%, respectively. IWUE was similar in I 0 and I 1 , while I 2 had reduced IWUE by 23%. WP was significantly influenced by irrigation level; reduction in irrigation water reduced WP by 17.5% and 36.3% in I 1 and I 2 compared to I 0 . Among sugarcane hybrids, Co 85019, Co 13006, Co 10026, Co 99004, CoLk 8102, Co 86249, Co 8371, Co 94008, and Co 95020 yielded higher than the genotypic mean under both deficit irrigation treatments, suggesting their usefulness in deficit irrigation strategies. Sugarcane hybrids with high WP can play a pivotal role in sustaining sugarcane productivity and can reduce the larg...

Physiological Efficiency of Sugarcane Clones under Water-Limited Conditions

“…The weather data during the 2016-2017 experimental period (table 2) showed that the rainfall was comparable to the 40-year (1940-1990) average rainfall (674 mm), and the irrigation treatments led to significant differences in the recorded physiological parameters, cane yield, and water productivity (Tayade et al, 2020).…”

“…However, a few clones (Co 10026, Co 13006, Co 85019, Co 62175, Co 86010, etc.) had better cane yield under waterlimited conditions (Tayade et al, 2020). A plausible reason is the better physiology of these clones, as indicated by their CTD and F v /F m .…”

“…Therefore, this stage was chosen for physiological observations. Fourteen days after irrigation, the soil moisture in the I 0 and I 2 plots was 20% and 12.8%, respectively (Tayade et al, 2020).…”

Efficient irrigation management in sugarcane cultivation in saline soil

“…Such difference is probably associated with the effect of salinity on crop development, which tends to reduce yield, and the greater amount of water applied due to the leaching fractions used, which are applied to reduce the concentration of salts in the wet bulb, where most of the root system of the crop is distributed. A solution to this problem, according to Tayade et al (2020), may be the use of sugarcane varieties with high WUE, thus leading to a more sustainable agriculture, especially considering the scenarios of climate change and increased water restriction in semiarid regions.…”

Global Water Security: Current Research and Priorities for Action

“…Schlegel et al (2020) compared two single-year cropping systems of continuous corn and grain sorghum, and two two-year rotations of corn-grain sorghum and corn-winter wheat in Kansas and found that the corn-grain sorghum rotation would be the most profitable cropping system under limitedirrigation conditions in the west-central U.S. Great Plains and similar environments. Similarly, Tayade et al (2020) identified nine commercial sugarcane hybrids (out of 31 hybrids tested) that enhance water use efficiency and water productivity under deficit irrigation conditions based on a field experiment conducted at the Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore, India. At the same site, Arun kumar et al (2020) monitored physiological traits, such as canopy temperature depression, chlorophyll fluorescence, and soil-plant development, in addition to cane yield under full and deficit irrigation strategies and found that canopy temperature deficit and chlorophyll fluorescence are better physiological traits for screening sugarcane clones under limited irrigation.…”