Improving crop production and water productivity using a new field drip irrigation design

Coping with the limited water resources in Egypt is a big challenge and there is a need to find new and innovative techniques for saving irrigation water. Although drip irrigation is the most efficient system for preserving irrigation water, the water distribution uniformity of the standard drippers requires great attention as it varies over drip line length. Two experiments were conducted during the growing seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017, in the north of Egypt to assess the performance of a newly developed design of drip irrigation system compared with two conventional irrigation system designs. The aim is to save water and fertilizers in sandy soil, using potato crop as a sensitive crop to water stress. The tested drip irrigation systems were: Design1: traditional drip irrigation system (control), Design2: drip irrigation system with the same direction for manifolds lines and laterals and Design 3, the new design: drip irrigation system with opposite direction for manifolds lines and laterals. The following parameters were considered to assess the performance of the different irrigation system designs: (1) the average emitter discharge along laterals for the three designs, (2) water emission uniformity, (3) application efficiency of irrigation water (4) tuber yield of potato (5) water productivity of potato “WPpotato” and (6) nitrogen productivity of potato “NPpotato”. The results of the study revealed that the maximum values of yield, WPpotato and FPpotato were obtained under the new design. This was due to the high uniformity in distribution of irrigation water and fertilizers along drip lines.