Response to Photosynthesis of Sugar Beet Cultivated with Conventional Surface Irrigation and Drip Irrigation in the Nile Delta, Egypt

摘要

Food production in the Nile delta fields has supported Egyptian people's daily life for a long time (Hamdan, 2000). In the Nile delta area, farmers can cultivate crops all year round because the weather is hot in summer and warm in winter. Major fieldcrops consist of maize, rice, sorghum, cotton, beans and sugar cane in summer, while wheat, barley, berseem (Egyptian clover), onion and sugar beet in winter. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is cultivated for sugar production and it is the second source of sugar next to sugar cane in the Nile delta. Sugar beet can store a high percentage of sucrose. The byproducts of sugar production in sugar beet are used for alcohol production and feedstuffs. Sugar beet is widely adapted to grow in poor, saline and alkaline soils.