Mulching Effects on Water use Efficiency of Corn Yield

摘要

AFIELD study was conducted in the summer seasons of 2007 and 2008 at the Agricultural Experimental Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, to evaluate the effect of different mulch materials on water evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency of corn yield. The mulching treatments were no-mulch, plastic mulch and rice straw mulch. Theoretical water evapotranspiration (ETo) was calculated for each treatment using Penman-Monteith (P.M) and Modified Penman (M.P) equations. The actual crop coefficient (Kc) and water use efficiency (WUE) were calculated for mulched and un-mulched treatments. The results revealed that corn yield was generally higher under mulched treatments compared with un-mulched treatments. Plastic and rice straw mulches significantly increased grain yield by 17.0 % and by 10.0 % compared to un-mulched treatment, respectively. The highest values of water use efficiency were obtained under plastic mulch treatment followed by rice straw mulch treatment. The increase in (WUE) was about 24.0 % and 14.0 % under plastic and rice straw mulches as compared to un-mulched treatment, respectively. Plastic mulch was more effective than rice straw in decreasing water evapotranspiration, increasing water use efficiency andgrain yield of corn. The theoretical crop coefficient (Kc) values reported by the FAO were higher than the actual (Kc) values obtained for all treatments. Mulching resulted in lower (Kc) values compared to un-mulching. However, the difference between theoretical and actual (Kc) values was not significant when using Penman-Monteith (P.M) equation. The (ETa) values were approximately closed to the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) obtained by Penman-Monteith (P.M) equation compared to those values obtained by Modified Penman (M.P) equation. The study confirmed that mulching has a benefit effect on increasing corn yield.