Title: Irrigation Scheduling for Maize Grown under Middle Egypt Conditions
Abstract: Two f ield experi ments were c onducted at Giza Agricultural Research Station, Agricultural Research Center, E gypt d uring the two successive seasons of 2005 and 2006. T he objectives o f t his research were: (i) to s tudy the effect of scheduling irrigation using three different pan evaporation coefficients on maize yield a nd i ts components; (ii) to de termine the most important yield c omponents of maize using different statistica l p rocedures. Ir rigation treatments w ere irrigation using 1.2, 1 .0, an d 0.8 pan evaporation coefficient d evoted to control, about 7% reduction in irrigation water th an the control, about 14% reduction in irrigation water than the control, respectively. Actual evapotranspiration and water use efficiency w ere estimated. Simple correlation coefficients a nalysis, multiple linear re gression analysis and principle components a nalysis were used to determine the most im portant yi eld components. Analysis of variance revealed that all the studied characters were significantly affected by irrigation treatments over the two gr owing seasons, except for n umber of rows/ear for bot h g rowing season an d number of grain/ear in 2005 growing season. Results also showed that under irrigation with 1.0 pan evaporation coefficient maize yield was reduced by 6.15 and 8.05% in 2005 and 2006 growing seasons, respectively. Furthermore, maize yield w as re duced by 36.07 a nd 35. 97% under irrigation with 0.8 pa n evaporation coefficient for 2005 and 2006, re spectively. The highest c onsumptive water u sed was o btained under irr igation with 1.2 pan evaporation coefficient i.e. 5894 and 6170 m /ha for t he first and second season, r espectively. 3 Whereas, the h ighest water use efficiency was obtained under irrigation with 1.0 pa n evaporation coefficient in 2005 growing season an d i n 2006 growing season, the highest water use efficiency was obtained under e ither irr igation with 1.2 pan evaporation coefficient o r 1 .0 pan evaporation coefficient. Therefore, t o increase water u se efficiency a nd to save irrigation water, it could be recommended to irrigate maize using 1.0 e vaporation pan coefficient under middle Egypt conditions. Simple correlation coefficients analysis revealed that ear length, ear diameter, number of grains/ear and 100-grain weight were positively and s ignificantly correlated t o m aize grain y ield. Multiple l inear regressions analysis indicated that three characters were f ound positively and s ignificantly correlated with maize yield i .e. grain w eight/ear, n umber o f grain/ear a nd 100-grain w eight. Whereas, re sults of p rinciple components analysis over the two growing seasons showed t hat ear length and g rain weight/ear accounted for 69.07 % of the total variation. Therefore, it is recommended to select for ear length and grain weight/ear in t he breeding programs.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 26
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