Effects of irrigation strategies and soil properties on the characteristics of deep percolation and crop water requirements for a variable rate irrigation system

Xiumei Li, Weixia Zhao, Jiusheng Li and Yanfeng Li

Agricultural Water Management, 2021, vol. 257, issue C

Abstract: Reducing deep percolation (DP) across the field is one of the main objectives of a variable rate irrigation (VRI) system under a semi-humid climate. A study was conducted in the North China Plain during the 2016 and 2017 maize growing seasons in a 1.64-ha one-quadrant plot irrigated by a VRI centre pivot irrigation system. The study was designed to quantify and compare the DP dynamics of three irrigation strategies, including soil water balance (SWB), measured soil water content (SWC), and a combination of SWB and rain forecasting for the next three days (RF). The area irrigated by the VRI system was delineated into three management zones (zones 1, 2, and 3) based on the available soil water holding capacity (AWC). Based on the seasonal cumulative DP, the zone-specific crop coefficient (Kc) for each zone was quantified to enhance the accuracy of the SWB method. The results indicated that high daily DP rates occurred during the initial and end growing seasons as well as following rainfall and irrigation events during the mid-season. The delay of DP after an intermittent large rainfall was observed in both seasons. The cumulative DP in zone 2 with a medium AWC and a uniform soil profile was 36% less than the mean values of DP for zones 1 and 3. Compared to the SWC and SWB methods, the cumulative DP for the RF treatment was reduced by 10% and 36%, respectively. During both seasons, the maximum DP values were observed in zones 2 and 3 under the SWB methods. The SWC method tended to increase the risk of DP for a coarse profile, whereas a lower sandy content soil tended to increase the risk for the SWB method. The mean Kc values derived based on DP for the initial, mid-season, and end of the late season stages were 0.86, 0.73, and 0.91 for zones 1, 2, and 3, respectively, with a 7% reduction compared to the Kc without considering DP. The seasonal crop water requirement determined by zone-specific Kc was reduced by 31 mm compared with the uniform Kc in different management zones. Our results suggested that the RF method exhibited promise for reducing DP, and the zone-specific Kc values were helpful to enhance the water savings of the SWB method for a VRI system.

Keywords: Centre pivot; Precision irrigation; Semi-humid; Site-specific; Soil water balance; Summer maize (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377421004200
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:257:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421004200

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107143

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 ().