تاثير كم آبياري بر عملكرد و كارآيي مصرف آب خرماي مضافتي در بم

The Effect of Deficit Irrigation on Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Mozafati Date Palm in Bam

This study was conducted to determine the impact of deficit irrigation on quality and quantity characters and yield of date palm cv. Mozafati in Randomized Complete Blocks design with four replicatis and 4 treatments during 1999 - 2003. In this study, four irrigation levels based on 60, 80, 100, and 120 percent evaporation from class A evaporation Pan were applied in a date palm orchard located in Azizabad region of Bam. In September after harvesting the morphological properties (length, width and weight of date fruit and pit), yield and chemical properties (moisture content, total soluble solids, acidity content and sugar content) of date fruits were measured. The results showed that the effect of treesʹs age on yield and other quality was not significant. The statistical analysis of the data indicated that treatmentsʹ effect on yield was significant and on other qualities were not significant. The 80% evaporation treatment led to the maximum yield (15.4 ton/ha) while the 60% evaporation treatment produced the minimum yield (10.4 ton/ha). There was no significant difference between yield of 80, 100, and 120% treatments. Water use efficiency for 80% treatment was 91% more than the other treatments. So, this irrigation treatment can be recommended for date palm irrigation in Bam region.