The Effect of Different Management of Sub-surface Irrigation on Water Productivity, Yield and Yield Component of Sugarcane (Var. CP69-1062)

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)is a perennial plant from graminea family that has high commercial and nutrient values for producing sugar (Abdollahi, 2009). In addition, special attention has been given to sugarcane cultivation in Iran because of its many applications in food, medicine and chemical industries. In this line, a large number of areas in Khuzestan (about 100,000 ha) is under cultivation of this plant (Abbasi & Sheini, 2017). Due to having a long duration especially in the hot season as well as high evaporation and evapotranspiration, it is classified as a high water requiring plant (Singh et al., 2018, Bhingardeve et al., 2017). For this reason, it is cultivated in areas with high amounts of rainfall (Abbasi & Sheini, 2017). Since furrow irrigation is used to supply water requirement of sugarcane, it leads to a decrease of irrigation efficiency. The sub-surface drip irrigation system, as a system set up under the soil, plays a better role in controlling salinity and deep percolation compared to drip irrigation. This method saves water by applying water in the root zone and decreasing deep percolation. So, it increases irrigation water productivity (Camp, 1998; Lamm & Trooien, 2003; Lamm & Camp, 2007). Due to scarcity of water resources in Iran, it is necessary to evaluate the effect of sub-surface irrigation system on sugarcane. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to achieve yield and yield component variation under different dripper spacings and depths in the sub-surface drip irrigation system.