Bread wheat production under water stress and saline irrigation practices

Abstract

This work is a part of a research programme carried out by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (Bari institute) in cooperation with INRA (France) and ICARDA. The programme focuses on the degree of salt tolerance of various leg- uminous and cereal varieties widely cultivatedin the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern arid countries. The work was conducted under controlled conditions in the greenhouse of Bari lnstitute using plastic lysimeters. to investigate The impact of irrigation with saline water (EC values of 1, 4 and 8 dS/m) under two irrigation regimes (100% and 50% of evapotranspiration) on the growth parameters and yield of seven bread wheat varieties supplied by ICARDA was investigated. The findings of this research indicated that increasing the salinity level resulted in a gradual decrease in the grain production. However, the varieties under investigation could tolerate salinity level up to 8 dS/m with average losses not exceeding the 10% with respect to the fresh water treatment. The results also showed that deficit irrigation and the use of saline water as an irrigation source can have many advantages. The yield can be very near to the yield obtained under full irrigation. The vegetative growth is reduced, thereby lowering the consumptive water use. The cropping period is reduced leading to earlier crop maturity. The accumulated salts in soil are reduced to values nearly 50% lower than that where irrigation is practiced to totally compensate the evapo-transpiration which practically means the leaching requirements are being diminished. The substitution of fresh water by saline water for wheat production allows having a satisfactory yield and is an excellent fresh water saving exercise and by an environmentally sounding technique.