EVALUATING DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS OF SALINE AND NON-SALINE WATER FOR MAIZE PRODUCTION

摘要

An experiment was conducted to study the efficient use of limited water supplies for two growing seasons of maize ( SC 704) using a completely randomized block design and three replications in 2012 and 2013. Treatments were full ( T-1) and deficit (T-2 = 50% of T-1) irrigation with non-saline water; T-3 and T-4 were variable and fixed full irrigation with saline ( 8 dS m(-1)) and non-saline water in alternate rows, respectively; T-5 and T-6 were fixed and variable deficit irrigation with non-saline water in alternate rows, respectively, and T-7 was full irrigation with saline water. Results indicated that in deficit irrigation treatments (T-2, T-5 and T-6) the maize yield decreased significantly ( 70% of T-1) compared with full irrigation (T-1), but there was no significant difference between T-2, T-5 and T-6 treatments. The maize yield in T-3 and T-4 treatments significantly increased compared with the T-2, T-5, T-6 and T-7, but there was no significant difference between the T-3 and T-4 treatments. Quantitative comparison has shown a significant reduction in maize yield by 22% with deficit irrigation scenarios when compared to T-3 and T-4 treatments. This finding suggests that if in the T-5 and T-6 treatments, dry rows are irrigated with saline water to complete the water requirements of the maize, it results in significantly increased maize yield. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.