Citrus Irrigation Scheduling

摘要

As the major water user, irrigated agriculture is expected to make substantial changes to optimize its water use. Ample research findings in the literature show that an efficient irrigation scheduling reduces production cost, improves crop yield, limits erosion and sediment loading, and enhances environmental quality. A successful irrigation water management program optimizes water availability, while ensuring the best crop yield and quality at the lowest cost to the producer. Irrigation scheduling is generally meant to calculate the exact amount and timing of irrigation to be applied to the field based on the crop irrigation water requirements. This review manuscript discusses the following sections: i) soil and its major physical properties that influence irrigation scheduling, ii) measurement of some of soil physical properties iii) rainfall characteristics (amount, intensity and distribution) and their effect on irrigation scheduling, iv) citrus crop properties that influence water uptake (rootsystem and crop growth stages and parameters, crop water uptake across the growing season), v) irrigation techniques used in citrus, vi) different citrus irrigation scheduling techniques, and vii) an outlook of future research in citrus irrigation scheduling.