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Sugarcane water use and irrigation requirements in a semi-arid environment.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Wiedenfeld, Bob |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | WATER for agricultural irrigation is becoming increasingly limited and, therefore, must be used as efficiently as possible. Sugarcane is a high biomass crop requiring lots of water. A field study was conducted to determine water requirements and crop water use by applying different levels of water. These were achieved by varying crop coefficients used with reference evapotranspiration to determine irrigation scheduling. Sugarcane yield responses to different water levels varied annually. The irrigation level producing maximum yields was not the same each year. Total water input including rainfall and irrigation to achieve maximum yields varied from 973 to 1328 mm/y; while water use efficiency (fresh weight of cane produced per unit of water uptake) varied from 6.0 to 11.7 t cane/ML of water. These results suggest that the amount of water required to produce maximum yields in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas may be less than the amount theoretically used by this crop under ideal conditions as reflected in the established crop coefficient curves. Deficit irrigation may lower yields, but may increase the amount of cane produced per unit of water used by the crop. Introduction Water availability for agricultural production is becoming increasingly limited everywhere irrigated agriculture is done. Sugarcane is a big water user. This crop is capable of producing 10 t/ha of cane for each 1.0 to 1.2 ML of water used (Holden, 1998; Rozeff, 1998). Based on evapotranspiration rates, sugarcane therefore has the potential to produce up to135 t/ha depending on climate conditions in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which would require 13.5 to 16.0 ML of water. While many factors including inadequate nutrition, salinity, weeds, insects and diseases can impact sugarcane production, water stress is most often the primary limitation. Sugarcane irrigation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is usually very inefficient and wasteful. Therefore, substantial improvements are possible (Wiedenfeld et al., 2005). Several efforts have been made to establish sugarcane crop water requirements in South Texas (Salinas and Namken, 1977; Wiedenfeld, 1995). In order to irrigate sugarcane as efficiently and effectively as possible, it is necessary to have a good understanding of crop water requirements and use in a manner that can be easily related to annual variability in climatic and rainfall conditions. The purpose of this study was to identify optimum water application levels based on evapotranspiration for sugarcane growth, yield and quality. Materials and methods A field study was initiated in 2000 in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (2610 N, 9756 W, elevation 18 m), an area with a subtropical, semi-arid climate. Sugarcane cultivar |
| Starting Page | 351 |
| Ending Page | 356 |
| Page Count | 6 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 27 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.issct.org/pdf/proceedings/2007/Papers/2007%20Wiedenfeld,%20SUGARCANE%20WATER%20USE%20AND%20IRRIGATION%20REQUIREMENTS%20IN%20A%20SEMI-ARID%20ENVIRONMENT.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
