EFFECT OF WATER STRESS ON WHEAT CROP USING NEUTRON SCATTERING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out on a sandy soil at the experimental farm of Soil and Water Research Department, Nuclear Research Center in 2014- 2015located at Inshas, Sharkia Governorate, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt. The latitude and longitude of the experiment site is 30o 17` 7`` N, 31o 23` 47`` E, respectively, and the altitude is 27 m above the sea level to study the effect of water stress on wheat crop variety Misr2 (Triticum astivum L.) using neutron scattering technique under trickle irrigation system with emission uniformity (92.02%) with study some properties of sandy soil, wheat production, actual evapotranspiration (ETa), crop coefficient (Kc), water stress coefficient (Ks),water use efficiency, irrigation water use efficiency and water productivity. Complete randomized block design (CRBD) was used with four replicates and four different irrigation water treatments; 100, 80, 60 and 40% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively, that calculated from Weather station data. Each treatment was irrigated twice a week based on the daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc) that calculated from reference evapotranspiration (ETo) using Penman-Monteith equation depending on the climatic parameters during the growing season . The Neutron scattering technique used to detect the soil moisture contents during the growing season after and before the next irrigation using neutron moisture meter that at depths 30, 50, 70 and 90 cm . The aim of this study was:  Estimating actual and crop evapotranspiration (ETa & ETc) for wheat crop by climatic method (Penman Monteith) under trickle irrigation system using neutron scattering method.  Optimizing the irrigation water requirement via determine adjustable crop evapotranspiration (ETc adj),