• Authors:
    • Chauhan, S. N.
    • Kumari, P. R. V.
    • Tayade, A. S.
    • Reddy, A. R.
    • Thakare, S. K.
    • Majumdar, G.
    • Raju, A. R.
    • Mahalle, P. S.
    • Katore, J. R.
  • Source: Journal of Cotton Research and Development
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Series of field trials were conducted during 1987-2010 at Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur indicated that in shallow, medium and deep soils, it was estimated to collect 150, 300 and 350 M 3 of runoff water/ha in experimental ponds (200 M 3) at down stream by September end, 56-82 per cent of the pond capacity, was stored. The recycling of this runoff water through supplemental irrigation during 1987-1993, improved additional seed cotton yield by 136, 290 and 387 kg/ha or 20, 28 and 26 per cent over rainfed cotton LRA 5166 in shallow, medium and deep soils respectively. The supplemental irrigations improved WUE by 34, 73 and 97 kg/ha cm respectively in shallow, medium and deep soils. Experimental pond (200 M 3) size presently advocated, were not accepted by the farmers as they were economically non viable at field scale, but these can be helpful in improving the recharge of existing gravitational wells. Two supplemental irrigations at flowering stage along with deficient micronutrients improved seed cotton yields of 25-30 per cent higher in shallow and medium deep soils, respectively during 2002-2007 in NHH 44 non Bt hybrid cotton. It is difficult to provide life saving irrigations from farm ponds in first fortnight of July to seedling droughts. Large farm ponds at community levels can solve this problem of seedling droughts from the recharge of previous year in underground aquifers besides recharging the drinking water wells for summer shortages with 2-3 years of breakeven under multiple uses of water. Terminal droughts of August can overcome by supplemental irrigations from farm ponds of 10 ha catchment with a breakeven of 12 years. Bt hybrid cotton responded for two supplemental irrigations from harvested runoff water at seedling/terminal droughts in July (12-47% runoff) or in mid September (23-80% runoff) @ 750 kg/ha seed cotton yield in vertisols.
  • Authors:
    • Levy, Y.
    • Raveh, E.
  • Source: Israel Journal of Plant Sciences
  • Volume: 59
  • Issue: 2/4
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: During the last 50 years world irrigation has doubled while water withdrawal has tripled, leading to a global water crisis. As a result, growers around the world are forced to utilize effluent water for irrigation. In Israel the main source for such water is "SHAFDAN", i.e., tertiary-treated waste water, which is characterized by high chloride content that might increase in the future. These days about 33% of Israeli citrus orchards are irrigated with this water, yet its potential effect on citrus orchards is not clear. Citrus is one of the major fruit crops of the world and is relatively salt-sensitive. Recently it was reported that continuous application of KNO 3 might reduce chloride (Cl) uptake, and thus overcome the toxic effects of salinity. We examined the effect of KNO 3 fertilization and rootstock on grapefruit's response to salinized SHAFDAN reclaimed water over four years. Trees were grafted on five different rootstocks and fertigated with two KNO 3 regimes (118 vs. 148 mg 1 -1 NO 3), and exposed to five levels of salinized reclaimed water (from 221 to 765 mg 1 -1 Cl). During the experiment, soil electrical conductivity (EC) ranged from 2 dS m -1 (above the threshold for yield reduction) to 5 dS m -1. Leaf Cl (with the exception of trees grafted on Troyer) usually kept below toxicity level, i.e., >0.4%. Cumulative yield reduction due to salinity was 37.6, 21.3, 18.2, 17.2, and 12.6 kg per tree per dS m -1 of soil paste extract, for trees grafted on 812, SO, Volk, Gau, and Troy rootstocks, respectively, reflecting their sensitivity to the osmotic component of salt stress. Enhanced application of KNO 3 did not overcome the osmotic effect of salinity. These results indicate that while using reclaimed water, the osmotic component of salinity can be of higher significance than its toxic component, and more attention should be given in the future to the rootstock/scion combination's sensitivity to the osmotic component of salinity.
  • Authors:
    • Yi, L.
    • Xin, R.
    • Min, L.
    • Lijun, G.
    • Man, F.
  • Source: Nongye Jixie Xuebao = Transactions of the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery
  • Volume: 42
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: In order to seek the variations of soil water repellency and its relationship with soil moisture content, soil salt content and pH value, soils samples were collected in two profiles at two grids (intervals were 10 cm * 10 cm and 5 cm * 5 cm, respectively) in a newly cultivated cotton field mulched with plastic film and irrigated with trickle method in Xinjiang. The soil water repellency, soil moisture content, soil salt content and pH value of the profiles were tested and analyzed using the methods of classical statistics, geostatistics and correlation analysis. The results showed that the soil water repellency had moderate variability and the spatial auto-correlation was under the level of the middle class in secondary saline field profiles. The strongest soil water repellency appeared around the depth of 40 cm and the characteristics of soil water repellency were not obvious when the depth was deeper than 80 cm. The soil moisture content and the soil water repellency appeared to be positively related at 0-40 cm depth and negatively related at 40-80 cm depth. Soil salt content and soil water repellency appeared to be positively related to the surface soil layer at 0-10 cm depth but negatively related to the other depth. The pH value and the soil water repellency mostly were generally positively related.
  • Authors:
    • Moreno, M. F.
    • Diaz, M.
    • Roldan, J.
  • Source: Acta Horticulturae
  • Issue: 889
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Irrigation water management in the Genil-Cabra irrigation district, located in the province of Cordoba, southern Spain, was studied using three irrigation performance indicators: relative irrigation supply (RIS); relative water supply (RWS) and relative rainfall supply (RRS). All indicators have been calculated as in a global way as grouping data according to crop type, irrigation method and soil texture. All information of agronomic and hydraulic variables was incorporated in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to ease its management. Results show that applied irrigations are deficit irrigations because RIS values are relatively low. However, RWS values are greater and evaporative demand may be satisfied along crop development cycle. RRS indicator varies less than the other two and, together with RWS, permits to know the evapotranspiration fraction covers by rain water. Irrigation water management in four crops (olive, cotton, sunflower and maize) is considered to be adequate. In the case of sugar beet and asparagus, the deficit is larger. Wheat and garlic are the two crops that show inefficient management due to an excess supply of water. RWS and RIS values are higher for sprinkler irrigation than for drip irrigation. Soil type has little influence on irrigation management. In general, more water is applied to crops planted in sandy loam soils than in silty clay loam soils. The mean values of performance indicators we have calculated are very useful to know farmer's behaviour and the general trend, although the used sample is not significant to characterize the global irrigation district.
  • Authors:
    • Puerto-Molina, H.
    • Sacristan-Beltri, E.
    • Melian-Navarro, A.
    • Ruiz-Canales, A.
    • Molina-Martinez, J. M.
  • Source: Acta Horticulturae
  • Issue: 889
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Along the Mediterranean countries, water scarcity is a structural problem. In the Southest of Spain water shortage is becoming more acute, specially in the agricultural sector. In these areas the cultivation of citrus fruits is very important but those are irrigation, intensive crops with important water requirements. In order to optimize available water offer and rationalize the demand management an increase of the efficiency of existing irrigation systems could be achieved by the improvement of irrigation scheduling techniques. During the last years, irrigation systems have undergone a modernisation process, the majority of which implied the change of surface irrigation to drip irrigation systems. These changes have been promoted both by national and regional administrations and farmers. However, the adoption of drip irrigation has not involved an adequate irrigation management and thus, these irrigation facilities have not reached high values of efficiency, as compared to the potential efficiency of drip irrigation systems. An adequate irrigation scheduling is necessary in order to increase the efficiency values mainly avoiding infiltration water losses and applying only the water required to meet crop water needs. Traditional irrigation scheduling is based on a soil water balance model as the proposed by FAO. This methodology has proven to be partially accurate for fruit trees. For this reason is important to assess some possible alternatives or complements to the FAO model. Finally, the application of several systems of irrigation scheduling for citrus trees based on water content gauges has been studied. Some results, advantages and disadvantages of these systems are analyzed.
  • Authors:
    • Zhang, T. Z.
    • Yusuf, Z.
    • Nabila, T.
    • Ihsan, U.
    • Guo, W. Z.
    • Mehboob-ur-Rahman
    • Saeed, M.
  • Source: Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Increasing scarcity of irrigation water is a major threat to sustainable production of cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.). Identifying genomic regions contributing to abiotic stress tolerance will help develop cotton cultivars suitable for water-limited regions through molecular marker-assisted breeding. A molecular mapping F 2 population was derived from an intraspecific cross of the drought sensitive G. hirsutum cv. FH-901 and drought tolerant G. hirsutum cv. RH-510. Field data were recorded on physiological traits (osmotic potential and osmotic adjustment); yield and its component traits (seedcotton yield, number of bolls/plant and boll weight); and plant architecture traits (plant height and number of nodes per plant) for F 2, F 2:3 and F 2:4 generations under well-watered versus water-limited growth conditions. The two parents were surveyed for polymorphism using 6500 SSR primer pairs. Joinmap3.0 software was used to construct linkage map with 64 polymorphic markers and it resulted into 35 markers mapped on 12 linkage groups. QTL analysis was performed by composite interval mapping (CIM) using QTL Cartographer2.5 software. In total, 7 QTLs (osmotic potential 2, osmotic adjustment 1, seedcotton yield 1, number of bolls/plant 1, boll weight 1 and plant height 1) were identified. There were three QTLs ( qtlOP-2, qtlOA-1, and qtlPH-1) detected only in water-limited conditions. Two QTLs ( qtlSC-1 and qtlBW-1) were detected for relative values. Two QTLs ( qtlOP-1 and qtlBN-1) were detected for well-watered treatment. Significant QTLs detected in this study can be employed in MAS for molecular breeding programs aiming at developing drought tolerant cotton cultivars.
  • Authors:
    • Patil, B. V.
    • Sagar, D.
  • Source: Journal of Entomological Research
  • Volume: 35
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Bt cotton genotypes under investigation (BG, BG-II) responded similarly for egg population of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) with no differential susceptibility. With respect to larval incidence and damage due to H. armigera, Earias vittella (Fabricius), Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) and Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) all the second generation Bt cotton genotypes performed better over Bollgard cotton under unprotected condition. Interspecific Bt cotton genotypes were found superior with respect to good opened bolls per plant, bad opened bolls per plant, total number of harvested bolls per plant, seed cotton yield and benefit cost ratio over intraspecific Bt cotton genotypes. Among interspecific Bt cotton genotypes MRC-7918 Bt (BG-II) proved better than the MRC-6918 Bt (BG-I) and with in intraspecific Bt cotton genotypes NCS-145 Bt (BG-I) proved better in all yield contributing factors and benefit cost ratio than NCS-145 Bt (BG-II).
  • Authors:
    • Javaid, A.
    • Mahmood-ul-Hassan
    • Alam, S. S.
    • Saleem, M.
  • Source: Pakistan Journal of Botany
  • Volume: 43
  • Issue: 6
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Significant effect of different irrigation schedules and integrated nutrition levels was determined on fraction of intercepted radiation (Fi) in cotton. The treatments were four irrigation schedules viz, six irrigations (I-1), three irrigations (I-2), irrigation at 25 mm deficit (I-3) and irrigation at 50 mm deficit (14), and seven integrated nutrition levels i.e. control (No), 75-37.5-37.5 kg NM ha(-1) (N-1), 75-37.5-37.5 kg NPK ha(-1) + FYM (farm yard manure) @ 20 t ha(-1) (N-2), 75-37.5-37.5 kg NPK. ha-(1) + wheat straw@ St ha(-1) (N3), 150-75-75 kg NPK ha(-1) (N-4), 150-75-75 kg NM + FYM @20 t ha(-1) (N-5), 150-75-75 kg NPK ha(-1) + wheat straw @ 5 t ha(-1) (N-6). Positive and linear relationships were established between Fi and total dry flatter (TDM); and Fi and seed cotton yield. Significantly higher Fi values were attained when the crop was planted at N-5 with any of three irrigation schedules viz. I-1, or I-3 or I-4. The highest values of Fi (0.914 in first year and 0.913 in second year of study) were recorded with I4N5 which were followed by I3N5 and I1N5. The interactions I4N5, I3N5 and I1N5 harvested 23.51, 23.38 and 20.27 % greater Fi to I2N0.
  • Authors:
    • Abubakar, M. M.
    • Kushwaha, S.
    • Sani, M. H.
    • Ayoola, G. B.
  • Source: Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 9
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The application of modified compromise weighted multi-objective programming to Fadama farming in Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State was the main focus of the study. Samples of 106 Fadama vegetable cultivars were randomly selected from 12 Fadama user's associations in the study area. The farm sizes were grouped and formed into three categories namely: below 1 ha, 1 to 2.99 ha and 3 to 4.99 ha farms, with sample size of 37, 39 and 30 farmers, respectively. It was assumed that farming could be optimized using four specific objectives (maximization of income, and employment; minimization of fertilizer and ground water use). Modified compromise weighted multi-objective programming technique was used to analyze the four objectives, which were optimized individually and combined. The results disclosed that the 3 to 4.99 ha farm size had the best maximum income level of N302,199.26 (+28.11%) and employment of 1125 man days (+33.61%) and minimum level of fertilizer use of 182 kg (-8.08%) and ground water use of 3962 mm (-17.25%) at their respective existing farm levels compared to the other categories of farms. This implied that the farmers were characterized by preponderance of high level of adoption of agricultural technology, resulting from intensive cropping, leading to a high level of chemical fertilizer and increased use of ground water for irrigation which consequently led to reduction of ground water table in the study area. It was therefore recommended that the farmers in the study area should concentrate in the cultivation of the major Fadama crops like onion, tomato, pepper, okro, cabbage and lettuce instead of spreading out their resources to grow potato, carrot and garden-egg.
  • Authors:
    • Halloran, J.
    • Larkin, R.
    • Olanya, O.
    • Honeycutt, C.
    • He, Z.
  • Source: Journal of Food Agriculture & Environment
  • Volume: 9
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Appropriate evaluation of soil phosphorus (P) availability is a prerequisite for best P management in potato production systems. Consequently, we evaluated soil test P and microbial biomass P in 10 rainfed and irrigated potato field soils which had a three-year crop rotation. Ammonium oxalate extracted P was the highest with a level of >1400 mg kg -1. Olsen P was moderate and ranged from 100 to 120 mg kg -1. Modified Morgan inorganic P (MMPi) was lowest (