Deficit irrigation effect on fruit yield, quality and water use efficiency: A long-term study on Pêra-IAC sweet orange

Laís Karina Silveira, Glaucia Cristina Pavão, Carlos Tadeu dos Santos Dias, José Antonio Quaggio and Regina Célia de Matos Pires

Agricultural Water Management, 2020, vol. 231, issue C

Abstract: Brazil stands out in world citrus production, as it is responsible for the largest cultivated area and production amounts. In the last decade, Sao Paulo State fruit yield improved due to adoption of technologies such as irrigation and fertilization. Considering the need for improving yield, quality and water resources sustainable use in agriculture, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of deficit irrigation on Pêra-IAC orange fruit yield, juice quality and water use efficiency. The experiment was carried out in a Pera sweet orange grafted onto Sunki mandarin orchard. Water was applied by drip irrigation system and there were five treatments testing different irrigation depths: T100 - 100 % of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), T75 - 75 % ETc, T50 - 50 % ETc, T25 - 25 % ETc and T0 - rainfed. Six replications per treatment were randomized in blocks for statistical analysis. Fruit yield was evaluated by weighing all fruits per tree and quality characteristics were monitored by samplings during maturation period until harvest. Five harvesting years were evaluated, from 2013/14–2017/18. Results were tested by analysis of variance, Tukey's means test and Scott-Knott grouping test (α = 0,05). Irrigation improved fruit yield in three out of five seasons, even when applying only 25 % of ETc. Irrigation yield increments ranged from 15 to 64 % when compared to rainfed treatment. Deficit irrigation improved fruit quality compared to the full-irrigated trees (T100), as it resulted in lower acidity and higher maturation index. After five seasons, fruit yield in irrigated treatments was increased by 30.8 % compared to the rainfed. Water use efficiency showed that deficit irrigation applying 50 % ETc is an interesting strategy for increasing yield, quality and saving water.

Keywords: Citrus; Drip irrigation; Soluble solids; Water deficit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377419317901
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:231:y:2020:i:c:s0378377419317901

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106019

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 ().