Marina al Ali (1)* and Jamil Abass(2),
(1) Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.Damascus, Syria.
(2) Soil and Water Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University. Latakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Marina al Ali. Email: marinaalali@tishreen.edu.sy)
Received: 10/10/2020 Accepted: 19/10/2020
Abstract:
This study was conducted in the nursery of the Faculty of Agriculture (Tishreen University). The divided Spunta potato tubers were planted in the belly of the furrow with a spacing of 30 cm between the tuber and the other and the spacing between lines is 70 cm on 02/23/2020 and the surface irrigation method by furrow was used with well-control. The experiment land was divided into 3 equal parts, and each section had a treatment and each transaction has 4 duplicates (4 lines): 1- Rainfed agriculture (without adding any irrigation: the control without irrigation), 2- Treatment of 100% of the water need, i.e. rain + supplementary irrigation, 3- At 80% of the water need, i.e. rain + supplementray irrigation. The waterings were given at 80% of the field capacity. in order to increase the water use efficiency for producing potato crops by using supplementary irrigation. The results showed by comparing the Water Use Efficiency (WUE) in the three cases that The WUE was 14.61 kg/m3/ha (the first treatment), 36.49 kg/m3/ha (the second treatment), 51.91 kg/m3/ha (the third treatment), where water productivity doubled by 2.5 times (the second treatment) and by 3.5 times (the third treatment). Concerning the yield of tubers, the results showed that the third treatment represented the maximum production (6.6 kg/m2) and better than the second treatment (5.8 kg/m2), while the first treatment had a much lower production (4.3 kg/m2) according to the ANOVA test at the significance level of 5%, which means that potatoes can be produce on the Syrian coast without the need for irrigation but with little cost-effectiveness. Therefore, we recommend supplementary irrigationin order to develop agricultural production in terms of quantity and quality, which will be positively reflected for potato farmers. The good control of the irrigation method showed an efficiency of 75%, which is very close to the efficiency of sprinkler and drip irrigation, depending on the irrigation scheduling program and the amount of water added at 80% of the water need and adding irrigation at 80% of the field capacity
Key words: Ppotato, Yield, Furrow irrigation, Supplementary irrigation, Water use efficiency.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF