WATER PRODUCTIVITY OF MAIZE GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION REGIMES IN VOJVODINA (SERBIA)

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to compare the effect of different regimes of sprinkler irrigation of maize on its productivity and water use efficiency, on experimental fields of the Maize Research Institute of Zemun Polje, Serbia. Four irrigation regimes were studied: full irrigation (I100), 75% of I100 (I75), 50% of I100 (I50), and no irrigation (I0), in 2007 and 2008. The crop water use efficiency (CWUE), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and evapotranspiration water use efficiency (ETWUE) are used to assess the water productivity of each studied treatment. The efficiency of the same treatment differs between the study years as it depends on seasonal water availability, weather conditions and their impact on grain yields. In general, CWUE increases with irrigation. In the two growing seasons, IWUE and ETWUE decreased with increasing ETa and the amount of water added by irrigation. On average, treatments I50 and I75 resulted in similar or higher WUE and ETWUE than treatment I100 in both years. IWUE rose as the amount of irrigation water increased in 2007, whereas the opposite was the case in the drier year 2008. Under the agroecological conditions such as exist in Vojvodina, treatments with 50% and 75% of I100 compare very well to full irrigation, in terms of productivity, such that they represent a sustainable irrigation strategy for improving the water productivity of maize, with an average of 43% and 27% less irrigation water, respectively, in which case the grain yields are reduced by 17% and 10%, respectively, on average.