Water use, growth, and yield of drip irrigated cassava in a humid tropical environment

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at the Agricultural Engineering Experimental Farm of The Federal University of Technology, Akure, during 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons to investigate the response of cassava under drip irrigation. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments were based on four different water regimes; with T100 receiving 100% available water (AW), T50 and T25 receiving 50% and 25% of AW and T0 with zero irrigation (control treatment). Disease free stems of the cassava cultivar TMS 91934 were planted at a spacing of 1 m by 1 m. The results indicated that T100 full treatment produced the highest average total dry matter yield of 49.12 and 37.62 t/ha in 2006/07 and 2007/08 cropping seasons, respectively. However, the average total dry matter production in T50, T25, and T0 showed significant differences in their values. Low total dry matter yields of 7.12 and 5.92 t/ha, respectively, were associated with T0 for the two cropping seasons. The total water use of 1491.75 and 1701.13 mm was recorded for T100, while total water use of 729.00 and 651.13 mm were obtained for T0 in the two cropping seasons. The water use efficiency determined for the two cropping seasons ranged between 7.38 kg/ha and 32.93 kg/ha. The percentages of total water applied from total water use for T100 were 51.11% and 61.72%, while 14.83% and 17.85% were recorded for T25 for 2006/07 and 2007/08 cropping seasons, respectively.

Keywords

• cassava
• drip irrigation
• irrigation regimes
• soil-water regimes
• supplemental irrigation
• water use, water use efficiency
• yields