Sustainability of Agricultural Productivity and Water Requirement of Sorghum Crop Under Deficient Irrigation

Abstract

Abstract A field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Station of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad - Al-Jadriya (Station F), to study the effect of deficit irrigation on the water requirement of Sorghum bicolor L, using surface drip irrigation system, during the spring season 2022 in a clay loam soil, using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The experiment included 6 irrigation treatments levels: complete irrigation treatment, 100% irrigation, (at 50% of the available water depleted), and compensated by the American evaporation basin index, Class A, and deficit irrigation applying 80, 70, 60, 50, and 40% of the 1st complete irrigation. Deficit irrigation applied at (vegetative growth, flowering and grains maturity stages for Sorghum crop. Sorghum seeds were sown on 13. Mar 2022 and harvested on 15. Jul 2022. The results indicated that water requirement for sorghum, it’s the highest value in the full irrigation treatment was 487.25 mm season-1, then it decreased to 413.87, 377.19, 340.50, 303.81, and 267.12 mm season-1 for above treatments respectively.