Integrated Agro-Economic Approach to Deficit Irrigation on Lettuce Crops in Sicily (Italy)
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 4
Abstract
The effect of four different irrigation levels on the marketable yield and economic return of summer-growth lettuce was evaluated during 2005 and 2006 in Eastern Sicily, Italy. The viability of deficit irrigation was evaluated by estimating optimum applied water levels. Actual evapotranspiration was estimated by combining pan evaporation measures and the Penman–Monteith approach . The highest marketable yield of lettuce was recorded for plots receiving 100% . For deficit irrigated plots, reductions in crop production were ascribed to a decrease in lettuce weight. Crop coefficients equal to 1 determined maximum crop production values. Crop water use efficiency was maximum at a 100% level of water applied, corresponding to yield of . Irrigation water use efficiency reached its maximum at a 40% level, with values of 0.54 and during 2005 and 2006, respectively. Water applied and marketable yield of lettuce showed a significant quadratic relationship. Cost functions had a quadratic form during 2005 and a linear form during 2006. In the land-limiting condition the optimal economic levels fit the agronomic ones well. In the water-limiting condition, ranges of water deficit of 15–44% and 74–94% were as profitable as full irrigation, thus contributing to appreciable water savings.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the P.O.N. Project “AQUATEC—New technologies of control, treatment, and maintenance for the solution of water emergency” Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDO.R. 1.4. The writers are grateful to Rick Snyder for his support during this experiment. The writers made equal contributions to the study.
References
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop water requirements.” FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56, FAO, Rome.
Ayers, R. S., and Westcot, D. W. (1988). “Water quality for agriculture.” FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 29, Rev. 1, FAO, Rome.
Bates, J. H. F., Grové, B., and Oosthuizen, I. K. (1997). “An economic analysis of irrigation scheduling with limited water supplies.” Sustainable Irrigation in Areas of Water Scarcity and Drought, Proc., ICID Workshop, Oxford, J. M. De Jager, L. P. Vermes, and R. Ragab, eds., British Nat. Com. ICID, Oxford, U.K., 6–13.
Bouchet, R. J. (1963). “Evapotranspiration rèelle et potentielle, signification climatique.” General Assembly, Berkley. Int. Assoc. Sci. Hydrol., Vol. 62, Gentbrugge, Belgium, 134–142.
Capra, A., and Scicolone, B. (1998). “Water quality and distribution uniformity in drip/trickle irrigation systems.” J. Agric. Eng. Res., 70, 355–365.
Consoli, S., O’Connell, N., and Snyder, R. (2006). “Estimation of evapotranspiration of different orange sized orchard canopies using energy balance.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 132(1), 9–20.
Doorenbos, J., and Pruitt, W. O. (1977). “Crop water requirements.” Irrig Drain Paper No. 24, revised, Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N., Rome.
English, M. J. (1990). “Deficit irrigation: An analytical framework.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 116(3), 399–412.
English, M. J., and Raja, S. N. (1996). “Perspective on deficit irrigation.” Agric. Water Manage., 32, 1–14.
Hirsch, R. M., Helsel, D. R., Cohn, T. A., and Gilroy, E. J. (1992). Handbook of hydrology, D. R. Maidment, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York.
Imitiyaz, M., Mgadla, N. P., Manase, S. K., Chendo, K., and Mothobi, E. O. (2000). “Yield and economic return of vegetable crops under variable irrigation.” Irrig. Sci., 19, 87–93.
Karmeli, J., and Keller, D. (1975). “Trickle irrigation design.” Rain Bird Manufacturing Corp., Glendora.
Lecler, N. L. (1998). “Integrated methods and models for deficit irrigation planning.” Agricultural systems modeling and simulation, R. M. Pert and R. B. Curry, eds., Marcel Dekker, New York.
Moreno, J., Calera, A., Caselles, V., Cisneros, J. M., Martinez-Lozano, J. A., Melia, J., Montero, F., and Sobrino, J. (2001). “The measurement program at Barrax.” DAISEX Final Workshop Proc., E.S.A. ESTEC Pubbl. No. SP-499, The ESA-Estec, Nordwijk (NL), 43–51.
Parlange, M. B., and Katul, G. G. (1992). “An advection-aridity evaporation model.” Water Resour. Res., 28(1), 127–132.
Pereira, L. S. (2002). “Irrigation demand management to cope with drought and water scarcity.” Tools for drought mitigation in Mediterranean regions, G. Rossi, A. Cancelliere, L. S. Pereira, T. Oweis, M. Shatanawi, and A. Zairi, eds., Vol. 44, Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Prihar, S. S., Gajri, P. R., and Narag, R. S. (1974). “Scheduling of irrigation to wheat using pan evaporation.” Indian J. Agric. Sci., 44, 567–571.
Reca, J., Roldan, J., Alcaide, M., Lopez, R., and Camacho, E. (2001). “Optimization model for water allocation in deficit irrigation systems. II: Application to Bémbezar irrigation system.” Agric. Water Manage., 48, 267–268.
Rossi, G., and Cancelliere, A. (2002). “At-site and regional drought identification by Redim model.” Tools for drought mitigation in Mediterranean regions, G. Rossi, A. Cancelliere, L. S. Pereira, T. Oweis, M. Shatanawi, and A. Zairi, eds., Vol. 44, Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Singh, B. P. (1987). “Effect of irrigation on the growth and yield of okra.” Hortsci, 22, 879–880.
Soil Conservation Service (SCS). (1982). “Procedures for collecting soil samples and methods of analysis for soil survey.” Soil Survey Investigation Rep. No. 1, Washington, D.C.
Strangeways, I. (2001). “Back to basics: The metenclosure.” Part 7. Evaporation. Weather, 56, 419–427.
Summer, D. V., and Jacobs, J. M. (2005). “Utility of Penman–Monteith, Priestley–Taylor, reference evapotranspiration, and pan evaporation methods to estimate pasture evapotranspiration.” J. Hydrol., 308, 81–104.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 4 • August 2008
Pages: 437 - 445
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 12, 2007
Accepted: Nov 29, 2007
Published online: Aug 1, 2008
Published in print: Aug 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.