EFFECT OF WATER TABLE DEPTH AND SALINITY OF IRRIGATION WATER ON SOME WATER RELATIONS AND PRODUCTIVITY OF COTTON

Abstract

Arid regions today face more difficult problems than ever before. Egypt is a predominantly arid country and the scattered rain showers in the north can hardly support any agricultural crops. Agriculture thus depends mainly on irrigation from the River Nile. The needed increase in food and fiber production to support the acceleration of population growth, compels the country to use all other sources of water such as drainage water and groundwater, for the expansion of irrigation agriculture and supply with water some major agricultural projects which will add a significant areas to the cultivated lands. For these reasons, all natural resources of water should be exploited for irrigation purposes.

On the other band, one of the soil problems which arise and take its place now in the Nile Delta of Egypt is the water table, its salinity and depth. Extensive areas in Egypt have a shallow water table created by inadequate drainage and poor irrigation practices. Under these conditions, we have to follow other strategies and search other ways to exploit all water resources to save more water.

As it is well known, cotton is one of the major Egyptian crops. More than million feddans are planted with cotton annually, it is a salt tolerant plant, therefore, it was selected as a summer crop to investigate the effect of salinity of irrigation water and the water table depth on some water relations and the productivity of cotton.