Water use efficiency and yield of winter wheat under different irrigation regimes in a semi-arid region

In irrigation schemes under rotational water supply in semi-arid region, the water allocation and irrigation scheduling are often based on a fixed-area proportionate water depth with every irrigation cycle irrespective of crops and their growth stages, for an equitable water supply. An experiment was conducted during the 2004- 2005 season in Haouz irrigated area in Morocco, which objective was 1) to evaluate the effects of the surface irrigation scheduling method (ex-isting rule) adopted by the irrigation agency on winter wheat production compared to a full ir-rigation method and 2) to evaluate drip irrigation versus surface irrigation impacts on water sav-ing and yield of winter wheat. The methodology was based on the FAO-56 dual approach for the surface irrigation scheduling. Ground measure- ments of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used to derive the basal crop coefficient and the vegetation fraction cover. The simple FAO-56 approach was used for drip irrigation scheduling. For surface irrigation, the existing rule approach resulted in yield and WUE reductions of 22% and 15%, respectively, compared with the optimized irrigation sched-uling proposed by the FAO-56 for full irrigation treatment. This revealed the negative effects of the irrigation schedules adopted in irrigation schemes under rotational water supply on crops productivity. It was also demonstrated that drip irrigation applied to wheat was more efficient with 20% of water saving in comparison with surface irrigation (full irrigation treatment). Drip irrigation gives also higher wheat yield com-pared to surface irrigation (+28% and +52% for full irrigation and existing rule treatments re-spectively). The same improvement was ob-served for water use efficiency (+24% and +59% respectively)

Four decades of progress in monitoring and modeling of processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system : applications and challenges

This paper presents an overview of a decade (2002-2012) of studies performed on Soil-Plant-Atmosphere processes, in semi-arid areas (Haouz plain, Morocco). In this period, fifteen in-situ experiments on the dominant irrigated crops were performed, controlling the fluxes exchanged between land surface and atmosphere. The results showed that the physically based SVATs (ICARE, SiSPAT and ISBA) provided the best estimates of surface fluxes. For operational purposes, the FAO-56 approach and SAMIR Software (Satellite Monitoring for Irrigation) give a good estimate of evapotranspiration at field and regional scales, respectively. Finally, thermal infrared data were used in conjunction with SVATs to investigate the possibility of estimating the quantity of irrigation water

The SudMed Program and the Joint International Laboratory TREMA: A Decade of Water Transfer Study in the Soil-plant-atmosphere System over Irrigated Crops in Semi-arid Area

International audienc

Agrometerological study of semi-arid areas: an experiment for analysing the potential of time series of FORMOSAT-2 images (Tensift-Marrakech plain)

International audienceEarth Observing Systems designed to provide both high spatial resolution (10 m) and high capacity of time revisit (a few days) offer strong opportunities for the management of agricultural water resources. The FORMOSAT-2 satellite is the first and only satellite with the ability to provide daily high-resolution images over a particular area with constant viewing angles. As part of the SudMed project, one of the first time series of FORMOSAT-2 images has been acquired over the semi-arid Tensift-Marrakech plain. Along with these acquisitions, an experimental data set has been collected to monitor land-cover/land-use, soil characteristics, vegetation dynamics and surface fluxes. This paper presents a first analysis of the potential of these data for agrometerological study of semi-arid area

Monitoring wheat phenology and irrigation in Central Morocco: On the use of relationships between evapotranspiration, crops coefficients, leaf area index and remotely-sensed vegetation indices

The monitoring of crop production and irrigation at a regional scale can be based on the use of ecosystem process models and remote sensing data. The former simulate the time courses of the main biophysical variables which affect crop photosynthesis and water consumption at a fine time step (hourly or daily); the latter allows to provide the spatial distribution of these variables over a region of interest at a time span from 10 days to a month. In this context, this study investigates the feasibility of using the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from remote sensing data to provide indirect estimates of: (1) the leaf area index (LAI), which is a key-variable of many crop process models; and (2) crop coefficients, which represent the ratio of actual (AET) to reference (ET0) evapotranspiration. A first analysis is performed based on a dataset collected at field in an irrigated area of the Haouz plain (region of Marrakesh, Central Morocco) during the 2002-2003 agricultural season. The seasonal courses of NDVI, LAI, AET and ETO have been compared, then crop coefficients have been calculated using a method that allows roughly to separate soil evaporation from plant transpiration. This allows to compute the crop basal coefficient (K-cb) restricted to the plant transpiration process. Finally, three relationships have been established. The relationships between LAI and NDVI as well as between LAI and Kcb were found both exponential, with associated errors of 30% and 15%, respectively. Because the NDVI saturates at high LAI values (>4), the use of remotely-sensed data results in poor accuracy of LAI estimates for well-developed canopies. However, this inaccuracy was not found critical for transpiration estimates since AET appears limited to ETO for well-developed canopies. As a consequence, the relationship between NDVI and Kcb was found linear and of good accuracy (15%). Based on these relationships, maps of LAI and transpiration requirements have been derived from two Landsat7-ETM+ images acquired at the beginning and the middle of the agricultural season. These maps show the space and time variability in crop development and water requirements over a 3 km x 3 km irrigated area that surrounds the fields of study. They may give an indication on how the water should be distributed over the area of interest in order to improve the efficiency of irrigation. The availability, in the near future, of Earth Observation Systems designed to provide both high spatial resolution (10 m) and frequent revisit (day) would make it feasible to set up such approaches for the operational monitoring of crop phenology and irrigation at a regional scale