Different irrigation regimes affect water use, yield and other yield components of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) crop in a semi-arid region of Iran

Author: Houshang Ghamarnia ^* and Salomah Sepehri

Received 14 October 2009, accepted 2 April 2010.

Abstract

Water shortage during crop planting in Iran, especially in the west parts of country, is very serious. Therefore, for this research an experiment was performed in a research field belong to Irrigation and Water Resource Engineering Department in College of Agriculture, Razi University in Kermanshah (west of Iran) in year 2007 to investigate the effects of different irrigation treatments on water use efficiency, yield and yield components of safflower crop (Carthamus Tinctorius L). The experiment was in complete randomized blocks design with different levels of irrigation water amounts (33%, 66% and 100%) of cumulative evaporation from Class A pan with surface drip (SD), subsurface drip (SSD) and surface furrow (SF) (with 100% ET), supplementary irrigation and dry farming treatments. The results showed that the effects of different irrigation treatments on water use efficiency were significant (P<0.01). The highest and lowest water use efficiency based on grain and oil yield with (5.2 and 2.423, 1.58 and 0.690 kg/ha/mm) were achieved for SSD and SF (100% ET) treatments, respectively. The results also showed that the treatment with SD (66% ET) was acceptable for conditions where there is a shortage in water resources. Although grain and oil yield of safflower under this treatment was significantly (P<0.01) lower than SSD (100%ET) treatment, no significant difference between various treatments was found. The results also showed that under conditions of a severe water resource shortage, the SD irrigation (33%ET) seems to be applicable, because water use efficiency compared to SD (66%ET) and SSD (100%ET) treatments was acceptable.

Key words: Surface drip, subsurface drip, furrow irrigation, water use efficiency.