Shallow saline groundwater use by Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) in the presence of surface water in a semi-arid region

Houshang Ghamarnia and Zahra Jalili

Agricultural Water Management, 2014, vol. 132, issue C, 89-100

Abstract: Lysimetric experiments were conducted to investigate the percentage of groundwater contributions made by Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.). The plants were grown in 27 columns, each with a diameter of 0.40m and packed with Silty clay soil. The factorial experiments were carried out using three replicates with randomized complete block design and different treatment combinations. Nine treatments were applied during each experiment via maintaining groundwater with an EC of 1, 2 and 4dSm−1 at three different water table depths (0.6, 0.8 and 1.10m). The groundwater contribution was measured as a part of crop evapotranspiration by taking daily readings of water levels in Mariotte tubes. The additional irrigation water requirement for each treatment was applied by adding surface water with EC of 0.5dSm−1. The results showed that for different treatments with EC values of 1, 2 and 4dSm−1 and different water table levels of 0.60, 0.80, and 1.10m, the average percentage of groundwater contributions were determined to be 67.25, 55 and 45.75%, 60.75, 50 and 41.5% and 54.25, 43.5 and 36% of the average annual Black cumin water requirements, respectively. This investigation shows that groundwater use and crop yield decrease as both groundwater salinity and water-table depth increase.

Keywords: Black cumin; Shallow groundwater; Salinity; Groundwater contribution; Lysimeter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377413002825
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:132:y:2014:i:c:p:89-100

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2013.10.012

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().