Effect of closed circuits drip irrigation system and lateral lines length on growth, yield, quality and water use efficiency of soybean crop.docVIP

Vol.4, No.2, 85-90 (2013) Agricultural Sciences /10.4236/as.2013.42014 Effect of closed circuits drip irrigation system and lateral lines length on growth, yield, quality and water use efficiency of soybean crop Mohamed Yousif Tayel, Hani Abdel-Ghani Mansour , Sabreen Khalil Pibars * Water Relation and Field Irrigation Department, National Research Center, Giza, Egypt; Corresponding Author: mansourhani2011@ * Received 4 December 2012; revised 5 January 2013; accepted 12 January 2013 ABSTRACT seed over 45 million ha. According to [1] the growth periods most sensitive to water deficit of soybean are the last part of the flowering stage and the early part of the yield formation (pod development). When water supply is limited, saving in water can be made by reducing the supply during the vegetative period and near crop matur- ity. [2] mentioned that irrigation is an important and an increasingly common practice in Georgia and other southeastern states for soybean production, as shown by an expansion in irrigated acreage from almost 9000 ha in 2000 to more than 40,000 in 2008. Soybean yield had been reported as low as 807 kg·ha?1 in 1980 and as high as 2220 kg·ha?1 in 2003 [3]. This large difference are mainly due to droughts, evidencing the need for supple- mental irrigation in Georgia, despite humid climate. Se- veral studies conducted for a wide range of environ- ments have demonstrated that soybean yield increases with irrigation [4-7]. Closed drip irrigation circuits have used in attempts to overcome the drop in pressure at the end of the lateral line of drip irrigation system. [8-13] carried out labora- tory and field experiments to study the effects of: Closed drip irrigation circuit with one manifold for lateral lines (CM1DIS), with two manifolds for lateral lines (CM2- DIS); traditional drip irrigation system as a control (TDIS) and lateral lines and le