Wheat growth and nitrogen use efficiency under drip irrigation on semi-arid region

Abstract

Irrigation water is limiting factor for crop production in arid and semi-arid regions. Modernirrigation system such as drip irrigation are widely used in Egypt and also used in othercountries especially have limited irrigation water resources. Drip irrigation provides theefficient use of limited water resources with increasing water productivity (WP).Application of nitrogen to wheat is needed to ensure the N availability throughout thegrowing season due to its important role in promoting both vegetative and reproductivegrowth. A field experiment was carried out during growing season of 2017/2018 at aprivate farm located at a newly reclaimed sandy soil at El-Sadat district El-Menofiyagovernorate , Egypt to study the effect of two nitrogen fertilizer types (ordinary and slowrelease N fertilizers) as urea 46.5%N and urea formaldehyde (38%N) with four applicationrates i.e., 0, 40, 60 and 100 kg N $fed^{-1}$ (1 feddan=4200 m2) combined with drip irrigationmoisture depletion from filed capacity (FC) (I1=100% of FC) and (I2=50% of FC) on wheatcrop. The results showed that application of water depletion at (I1) through drip irrigationalong with 100 kg N fed-1, from two sources of nitrogen recorded the highest yield of strawand grain and the nitrogen content as well as nitrogen use efficiency compared with theother rate and levels of nitrogen and irrigation, respectively. Also, water productivityincreased with irrigation I1 FC and nitrogen levels and reached the highest values at 100 kgN fed-1 as fertigated urea compared with urea formaldehyde as slow release fertilizer.