Identifying The Best Systems for Managing Saline Water in Arid Regions to Improve Productivity, Water Productivity, and Citrus Quality

Mahmoud, Mohamed Monier; Abuarab, Mohamed EL-Sayed; Shaban, Ayman Elsayed; Ghoniem, Elsayed Youssief

doi:10.21608/agro.2025.418289.1829

Identifying The Best Systems for Managing Saline Water in Arid Regions to Improve Productivity, Water Productivity, and Citrus Quality

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Agriculture Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

² ‎Fruit Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, ‎

³ Higher Institute of Agricultural Cooperation, Cairo, Egypt.‎

10.21608/agro.2025.418289.1829

Abstract

The research focused on the sustainable management of irrigation water for orange farming in sandy soils with varying salinity levels, aiming to enhance the utilization of sustainable ecosystems while maximizing farmers' economic benefits. Field trials were conducted over two consecutive growing seasons,‎‏ ‏specifically ‎from 2023 to 2025, utilizing six different irrigation techniques: T-tape GR drippers, online drippers, online ‎PC drippers, mist sprayers, the Root Zone Watering System (RZWS), and bubblers. In the second growing ‎season, the T-tape (GR) method achieved the highest yield of 27.54 ton ha⁻¹, while both the Bubbler and ‎online PC dripper treatments yielded 27.54 ton ha⁻¹ and 24.06 ton ha⁻¹, respectively. The mist sprayer produced the lowest yield at 18.09 ton ha⁻¹. In terms of irrigation water productivity (IWP), the T-tape (GR) ‎recorded an IWP of 6.08 kg m⁻³ in the first growing season, closely followed by the online PC dripper at 5.37 kg m⁻³. Conversely, the RZWS demonstrated the lowest IWP, at only 3.12 kg m⁻³ during the second ‎growing season. The highest net farm income (NFI) was reported for the T-tape GR at 8296.74 US$ y⁻¹ (dollars per year), followed by the Bubbler and online PC dripper systems, which yielded net farm incomes ‎of 7568.98 US$ y⁻¹ and 7437.07 US$ y-1”‎, respectively. The RZWS had the lowest NFI, amounting to 4408.40 US$ y⁻¹. ‎

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