Effect of readily available water deficit in soil on maize yield and evapotranspiration

• Main Authors: Pejić Borivoj, Maksimović Livija, Milić Stanko, Simić Dejan, Miletaški Bojan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of field and vegetable crops, Novi Sad 2010-01-01
• Series: Ratarstvo i Povrtarstvo
• Subjects: evapotranspiration; maize; readily available soil water deficit; yield
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1821-3944/2010/1821-39441001115P.pdf

An investigation was carried out at Rimski Šančevi experiment field of Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad on calcareous chernozem soil on the loess terrace, in the period 2000-2007, and included irrigated variant (T1) and non-irrigated i.e. control variant (T0). NS-640, maize hybrid from the FAO maturity group 600, was analyzed. Readily available soil water deficit (RASWD) in the layer of 60 cm in the course of growing season and actual evapotranspiration (ETa) were calculated by the water balance method. Water consumption for potential evapotranspiration (ETm) in individual months and the growing season were calculated by the bioclimatic procedure, using hydrophytothermic indexes. The correlation analysis revealed highly significant dependences of maize yield (Y) on RASWD (r = -0.941) and the amount of precipitation (P) in August (r = 0.931). Statistically significant dependence was also found between Y and RASWD (r = -0.765) and P (r = 0.768) in July and August. The obtained results indicate that maize production in Vojvodina under the rainfed conditions is unreliable, and that it is correlated with weather conditions, especially with the amount and distribution of precipitation. The statistically significant correlation obtained between Y and ETa (r = 0.755) confirms that water supply is the basic prerequisite which allows the other production factors to be realized. Significantly higher maize yields in the T1 variant (13.517 t ha-1) in relation to the T0 variant (11.210 t ha-1) indicate clearly that under the climatic conditions of Vojvodina high and stable yields of maize can be achieved only in irrigation. .