Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
agricultural application department, NARSS
2
Prof., of Ag. Eng., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Benha U., Egypt.
3
Assoc., Prof. of Ag. Eng., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Benha U., Egypt.
4
Prof. of Ag. Eng., Ag. App. Dept., NARSS, Egypt.
Abstract
This study investigates water scarcity and soil heterogeneity challenges in Egyptian agriculture, focusing on potato cultivation under a center pivot irrigation system. The research underscores the critical need for optimal water management to address the country's agricultural water scarcity, with a particular emphasis on implementing best practices. Initial steps involve evaluating irrigation system performance, emphasizing the importance of meeting crop water requirements and assessing adequacy. Utilizing satellite data and unsupervised classification, the study identifies
five main soil classes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 with areas about 31, 37, 28, 37 and 22 acres respectively, revealing high variability in soil properties. Time series analysis demonstrates significant impacts of soil variability on crop dynamics, indicating variations in germination time, density, maturity, and productivity across soil classes. Potato in class3 and class 4 germinated earlier than class 1 and class 2 by nearly 10 days and by 20 days from class 5 and the same thing occurred in maturity. Class 1 and class 2 showed more capability to save water and hadn’t been stressed along the season, class 3 and class 4 showed weakness in saving water and always being stressed. While class 5 catches more water but the water is unavailable image so it always seemed stressed and too late in germination and maturity. The findings recommend precision farming techniques to optimize agricultural inputs and address soil variability challenges. Furthermore, a variable rate irrigation system is proposed to effectively manage variations in soil characteristics and deliver water requirements accurately.
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