EVALUATION THE EFFECTS OF ORGANIC FERTILIZER AND IRRIGATION INTERVAL ON WATER NEED, WATER USE EFFICIENCY, AND QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF MAIZE YIELD

摘要

Water use efficiency (WUE) is grately influenced by soil water holding capacity, irrigationrninterval and also by soil organic matter, especially in draught condition. An experimentrnwas conducted to study the effects of manure application and irrigation interval on growthrnproperties, water need and WUE of maize (Zea mays L.), in Lorestan Province, west of Iran.rnExperimental design was split plot in randomized complete blocks with three replications inrntwo years. Irrigation treatments were assigned to the main plots and four levels of manurernapplication were assigned to the subplots (0, 20, 40, 60 ton/ha). Irrigation treatment levelsrnwere control or what is locally precticed (I_c), and irrigation after 50 (I_(50)), 75 (I_(75)) and 100rn(I_(100)) mm evaporation from A class evaporation pan. The required irrigation amount wasrnestimated from soil moisture depletion from field capacity by formula and the estimatedrnquantity was applied. Result from the first and second years experiment indicated thatrnthe effect of irrigation treatment and manure application on the grain yields was significantrnat α =1%. Significant decrease in seed protein (%) at α =1% was observed under thernapplication of 60 Mg ha~(-1) of manure. Seed protein percent significantly increased in waterrnstressed treatment. WUE range in different treatments was about 0.60 to 0.87 kg m~(-3).rnMinimum WUE was in I_(100) treatment without manure application. For optimum irrigationrnmanagement and increasing yield and WUE, the suggested irrigation interval is 6 days.