Impact of Deficit Irrigation Strategies Using Saline Water on Soil and Peach Tree Yield in an Arid Region of Tunisia
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Publication date
2024-02-27ISSN
2077-0472
Abstract
Sustainable fruit orchard development in arid areas is severely affected by the scarcity of fresh water. To mitigate the lack of fresh water, the use of low-quality water for irrigation is becoming a common practice in several margin areas. However, salinity is considered one of the most important environmental constraints limiting the successful crop production. Therefore, the effects of deficit irrigation strategies using saline water (3.1 dS m−1) on soil water content, soil salinity, and yield of commercial peach orchard were investigated. Three irrigation treatments were considered: a Control, full irrigated (FI); and partial root-zone drying (PRD50); and deficit irrigation (DI) strategies irrigated at 50% ETc. These levels of water supply allowed for contrasting watering conditions with clear distinction between irrigation treatments. The differential pattern in soil moisture was accompanied by that of soil salinity with an increase in all FI treatments (16–25%). The results indicated that soil salinity increased with increasing water supply and evaporative demand during the growing season from January (3.2 dS m−1) to August (6.6 dS m−1). Deficit irrigation strategies (DI, PRD50) induced more soil salinity along the row emitter compared to the Control due to insufficient leaching fractions. By the end of the growing season, the soil salinity under long-term saline drip irrigation remained stable (5.3–5.7 dS m−1). An efficient leaching action seemed to be guaranteed by rainfall and facilitated by sandy soil texture, as well as the high evaporative demand and the important salt quantity supplied, which maintain the deficit irrigation strategies as valuable tools for water saving and improving water productivity. The significant water saving of 50% of water requirements induced a fruit yield loss of 20%. For this reason, DI and PRD50 could be reasonable irrigation management tools for saving water and controlling soil salinity in arid areas and on deep sandy soil.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
631 - Agriculture in general
Pages
14
Publisher
MDPI
Is part of
Agriculture
Citation
Toumi, Ines, Mohamed Ghrab, Olfa Zarrouk, and Kamel Nagaz. 2024. “Impact of Deficit Irrigation Strategies Using Saline Water on Soil and Peach Tree Yield in an Arid Region of Tunisia.” Agriculture 14 (3). doi:10.3390/agriculture14030377.
Program
Fructicultura
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2555]
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