Water Use Efficiency And Productivity Of Two Sunflower Cultivars As Influenced ByThree Rates Of Drip Irrigation Water

摘要

Two filed experiments were conducted in El-Nobaria farm of the National Research Centre, Al-Behaira Governorate, Egypt during two successive growth seasons, 2007 and 2008 to study the response of two sunflower cultivars namely Giza 102 and Sakha 53 to three rates of drip irrigation water (100, 75 and 50% of the estimated crop evapotranspiration, which corresponded to 2690,2157 and 1624 m3 water/fed., respectively). The results indicated that decreasing the amount of irrigation water significantly reduced plant height, number of green leaves per plant, head diameter and total dry matter per plant in both seasons. The same tendency was observed for yield and its components. Also, it decreased significantly seed oil content. A reverse trend could be detected concerning water use efficiency. Significant differences were observed between the two studied sunflower cultivars with respect to growth, yield and its components as well as water use efficiency. Giza102 cultivar showed best performance and produced the highest seed yield while Sakha 53 cultivar recorded the highest seed oil content in the second season. Furthermore, there was no significant interaction between the two studied factors regarding all studied growth, yield and its components, oil content as well as water use efficiency.