Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran
2
Assistant Professor, Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
In the present study, the performance of a drip irrigation system for silage maize cultivation was evaluated. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot arrangement within a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main plots consisted of two planting configurations, A1 and A2. In both configurations, four planting rows were established; however, in configuration A1, the row spacing was 75 cm, whereas in configuration A2, the spacing between every two adjacent rows was 30 cm. Furthermore, in the first configuration, four drip tapes with 75 cm spacing were used, while in the second configuration, two drip tapes with 1.5 m spacing were applied. The subplots included two emitter discharge rates: Q1=1.5 and Q2=2.5 L.h⁻¹. The results demonstrated that the arrangement of irrigation tapes had a significant effect on discharge variation, dispersion uniformity percentage, and clogging percentage at the 5%, 1%, and 5% levels, respectively. In addition, emitter discharge rate significantly affected discharge variation and dispersion uniformity percentage at the 1% probability level. The interaction effect between planting arrangement and emitter discharge rate was significant only for discharge variation at the 5% probability level. The findings further revealed that, in the absence of the SFI filtration system, complete emitter clogging would occur after approximately 29 to 36 irrigation events. In contrast, the application of SFI filtration reduced clogging levels in different treatments by 26.7% to 37.7%. Evaluation of the distribution uniformity coefficient indicated that its values ranged from 83% to 96% across treatments, corresponding to moderate to high system performance. Ultimately, treatment A2Q2 was identified as the superior treatment, achieving a yield of 27.07 t.ha⁻¹ and a water productivity of 11.21 kg.m⁻³.
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