Meta-analysis of crop water use efficiency by irrigation system in the Texas High Plains

Flow rate and furrow length are the main irrigation decision variables currently affecting yield and water productivity at farm level. Improper selection of these variables produces an over use of water and loss in crop production. The general objective was to investigate the effect of decision variables on yield and water productivity of onion under conventional furrow irrigation system, with specific objective to analyze the effect of flow rate, furrow length and their interaction on yield and water productivity of onion. The field experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with factorial arrangement of three levels of flow rate (0.7, 0.98 and 1.3 L/S) and three levels of furrow length (25, 35 and 50 m) with three replications. Inflow out flow method was used to determine the infiltration characteristics of the soil and Irrigation depth was controlled by using 3-inch Parshall flume. The maximum non-erosive flow rate to the experimental site was fixed through design equation considering soil textural class and furrow bed slope. Effect of furrow length and flow rate on yield and water productivity of the onion were used for evaluation. Their analyses indicated that effect of furrow length and their interaction with flow rate on yield were not significant (p<0.05). However, the flow rate showed highly significant (p<0.01) effect on yield of onion. The ranges of mean yield gained from furrow length and flow rate were F1 (14.75 ton ha-1) to F3 (15.96 ton ha-1) and Q1 (13.59 ton ha-1) to Q3 (19.69 ton ha-1), respectively. The effect of furrow length on crop water use efficiency and field water use efficiency was not significant (p<0.05). However, the flow rate has showed highly significant (p<0.01) effect on crop water use efficiency and field water use efficiency. The range of mean crop water use efficiency and field water use efficiency from furrow length and flow rate were F1 (33.65 kg/ha/mm) to F3 (36.41 kg/ha/mm) and Q1 (30.99 kg/ha/mm) to Q3 (38.65kg/ha/mm) and F1 (2.06 kg/m3) to F3 (2.23 kg/m3) and Q1 (1.89 kg/m3) to Q3 (2.36 kg/m3), respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that a furrow length of 50 m is suitable to use 1.3 L/S of flow rate for better onion yield and water productivity under similar soil type of study area. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(1): 92-100, June 2021

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High-Throughput Phenotyping of Crop Water Use Efficiency via Multispectral Drone Imagery and a Daily Soil Water Balance Model

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs10111682 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 1682 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Kelly Thorp ◽

Alison Thompson ◽

Sara Harders ◽

Andrew French ◽

Richard Ward

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Water Use Efficiency ◽

Soil Water ◽

Water Use ◽

High Throughput ◽

Soil Water Balance ◽

Balance Model ◽

Crop Water ◽

Crop Water Use ◽

Use Efficiency

Improvement of crop water use efficiency (CWUE), defined as crop yield per volume of water used, is an important goal for both crop management and breeding. While many technologies have been developed for measuring crop water use in crop management studies, rarely have these techniques been applied at the scale of breeding plots. The objective was to develop a high-throughput methodology for quantifying water use in a cotton breeding trial at Maricopa, AZ, USA in 2016 and 2017, using evapotranspiration (ET) measurements from a co-located irrigation management trial to evaluate the approach. Approximately weekly overflights with an unmanned aerial system provided multispectral imagery from which plot-level fractional vegetation cover ( f c ) was computed. The f c data were used to drive a daily ET-based soil water balance model for seasonal crop water use quantification. A mixed model statistical analysis demonstrated that differences in ET and CWUE could be discriminated among eight cotton varieties ( p < 0 . 05 ), which were sown at two planting dates and managed with four irrigation levels. The results permitted breeders to identify cotton varieties with more favorable water use characteristics and higher CWUE, indicating that the methodology could become a useful tool for breeding selection.

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