Impact of Laser Land Leveling On Water Productivity of Wheat under Deficit Irrigation Condations

Abstract

Nowadays determining the optimum crop water requirements is considered one of the most important factors affecting plant productions, especially, with scarce water resources. This may be due to the interrelation between the amount of water added and the ability of plant. Two field experiments were carried out during the two growing seasons 2010/2011–2011/2012, at the Research Farm of the National Research Centre in Nubarya region, Egypt, to study the effect of both deficit irrigation and laser land leveling on saving water and increasing yield of wheat crop under Egyptian growing conditions. Studied factors were deficit irrigation (100% Irrigation Requirements "IR", 80%IR, 60%IR and 40%IR) and land leveling techniques (conventional "C" and laser "L"). The following parameters were studied to evaluate the effect of deficit irrigation and laser land leveling; (1) Soil moisture distribution, (2) Growth of wheat plant, (3) Yield of wheat , (4) Irrigation water use efficiency of wheat and (5) Economical parameters of wheat production process. Statistical analysis of the effect of the interaction between land leveling and irrigation on IWUE of wheat indicated that the maximum values were detected at adding 100%IR*L. However, no significant difference was observed between 100%IR*L >80%IR*L >and 60% IR*L, this means that we can save 40% of irrigation water by adding 60% IR with laser land leveling technique to irrigate wheat under sandy soil conditions.