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Early sowing and irrigation to increase barley yields and water use efficiency in Mediterranean conditions

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  • Yau, Sui-Kwong
  • Nimah, Musa
  • Farran, Mohamad

Abstract

In rainfed Mediterranean areas, early sowings which lead to early growth and maturity to escape terminal heat and drought usually give higher grain yield than late sowings in years when rains come early. We test the hypothesis that early sowing coupled with a small amount of irrigation to ensure earlier emergence increases grain yield significantly, while improving irrigation water productivity. Replicated field experiments were conducted for 4 years in the semi-arid central Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Barley was sown early, and half of the plots were irrigated with 25-30Â mm of water immediately after sowing (EI). Half of the plots also received irrigation around heading stage (LI). Besides yields, other agronomic data were collected throughout crop growth, and the supplemental irrigation water use efficiency (WUESI) was calculated. Our results confirm the hypothesis that in Mediterranean areas early sowing followed immediately with a small amount of irrigation increases barley grain yield significantly. Farmers in the region should seriously consider practicing this technique as it produces a higher WUESI than irrigation at the heading stage.

Suggested Citation

  • Yau, Sui-Kwong & Nimah, Musa & Farran, Mohamad, 2011. "Early sowing and irrigation to increase barley yields and water use efficiency in Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(12), pages 1776-1781, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:98:y:2011:i:12:p:1776-1781
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paredes, Paula & Rodrigues, Gonçalo C. & Cameira, Maria do Rosário & Torres, Maria Odete & Pereira, Luis S., 2017. "Assessing yield, water productivity and farm economic returns of malt barley as influenced by the sowing dates and supplemental irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 132-143.
    2. Pereira, Luis S. & Paredes, Paula & Rodrigues, Gonçalo C. & Neves, Manuela, 2015. "Modeling malt barley water use and evapotranspiration partitioning in two contrasting rainfall years. Assessing AquaCrop and SIMDualKc models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 239-254.
    3. Mohammad Kheiri & Saeid Soufizadeh & Abdolali Ghaffari & Majid AghaAlikhani & Ali Eskandari, 2017. "Association between temperature and precipitation with dryland wheat yield in northwest of Iran," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 703-717, April.
    4. Mansour, Elsayed & Abdul-Hamid, Mohamed I & Yasin, Mohamed T & Qabil, Naglaa & Attia, Ahmed, 2017. "Identifying drought-tolerant genotypes of barley and their responses to various irrigation levels in a Mediterranean environment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 58-67.
    5. Fan, Yubing & Wang, Chenggang & Nan, Zhibiao, 2014. "Comparative evaluation of crop water use efficiency, economic analysis and net household profit simulation in arid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 335-345.
    6. Yang, Jia & Ren, Wei & Ouyang, Ying & Feng, Gary & Tao, Bo & Granger, Joshua J. & Poudel, Krishna P., 2019. "Projection of 21st century irrigation water requirement across the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 60-72.

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