Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Assistant professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization(AREEO), Karaj, Iran.
3 Associate Professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Due to the limitation of water resources in the production of agricultural products in the country and the need to improve water productivity in the production of horticultural products on the one hand and the economic importance of plum production in the country on the other hand, the investigation of management indicators such as the volume of irrigation water, yield and irrigation water productivity is necessary in the production of plums in the country. Plums are one of the most important orchard products, and the livelihood of a large number of farmers in different regions of the country, including Khorasan-Razavi province, depends on this product. Therefore, the current project was carried out with the aim of direct and field measurement of the water content of plum varieties in orchards under the management of local farmers in the producing regions of this product in the province. According to the latest statistics published by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad (Statistical Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture of Khorasan Razavi Province in 2022), the area under plum cultivation in Mashhad and Chenaran regions is 328 and 75 hectares, respectively, and the yield per unit area in those two mentioned regions is 3905 and 6028 kg/ha, respectively.
Methodology
In Khorasan Razavi province, two regions with highest area under plum cultivation were selected for evaluation, Chenaran and Mashhad. To conduct this research, 10 orchards in Chenaran region and 10 orchards in Mashhad region have been selected. The volume of irrigation water was measured in these 20 orchards during the irrigation season. The measurements were carried out in different irrigation and planting methods, various soils, different salinity of irrigation water and soil, and different plum varieties during the growing season of 2021-2022 without interfering with the farmer's irrigation management. The measured values were compared with the gross irrigation water requirement estimated by the Penman-Monteith method using the last 10 years meteorological data and also with the national water document values. Plum yield was recorded at the end of the growing seaso nand water productivity was calculated as the ratio of yield to total water (irrigation applied water and effective rainfall).
Results and Discussion
The results showed that the amount of applied water, the amount of plum yield and the water productivity in Chenaran region were 10899 m3/ha, 21.73 ton/ha and 1.9 kg/m3, respectively. The volume of applied water, the amount of plum yield, and water productivity in Mashhad region were determined as 10229 m3/ha, 13.11 ton/ha and 1.42 kg/m3, respectively. The volume of plum irrigation water in the regions varied from 4999 to 16862 and its weighted average (based on the cultivation area) was 10256 m3/ha. While the average gross requirement of irrigation water in the regions using the Penman-Monteith method using meteorological data of the last ten years and the national water document was 14964 and 12173 m3/ha, respectively. The average yield of plum in the selected orchards varied from 5560 kg/ha to 89800 kg/ha and the average was 14713 kg/ha. Irrigation water productivity in selected orchards varied from 0.4 to 7.09 and the average was 1.53 kg/m3. The applied water productivity in the selected orchards was 1.51 kg/m3.
Conclusions
According to the results of this research in Chenaran and Mashhad, the weighted average volume of irrigation water and the irrigation water productivity in plum orchards are 10256 m3/ha and 1.53 kg/m3, respectively. The volume of irrigation water to produce plum in these two regions was about 31% more than that in country and the irrigation water productivity was about 32.6% less than that in country. The volume of irrigation water, yield and irrigation water productivity in plum orchards in drip irrigation method were 9920 m3/ha, 18827 kg/ha and 1.88 kg/m3, respectively, and in surface irrigation method they were 11433 m3/ha, 14804 kg/ha and 1.31 kg/m3 respectively. The yield of plum and the irrigation water productivity in drip irrigation method, compared to the surface irrigation method, increased by 27 and 43%, respectively, and water consumption decreased by 13%. Comparing the volume of irrigation water used by farmers in the plum orchards with the gross irrigation requirement, shows that the farmers have no enough water for irrigation and unintentionally, they follow deficit irrigation in the plum orchards, and in fact, the farmers use water available for them. The average yield of plums with drip irrigation method was equal to 18.83 ton/ha, which is about 65.75% higher than the average yield of plums in the country. Based on this, plum cultivation in both regions and also the use of drip irrigation method in plum orchards cab is recommended.
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