Effect of Drip Irrigation on Grain Yield and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) of Corn (Zea mayze. L) Under Winged and Non- Winged Tape Under Ahwaz Climatic Condition

In order to reduce evaporation from the soil surface and to increase the water use efficiency in maize, a research was conducted as a factorial experiment based on the randomized complete block design with three replications at the experimental field of Faculty of Water Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in 2016-2017. The experiments were carried out using three levels of irrigation (application 100, 80 & 60 percent of the crop water requirement) and two types of tubes (with a plastic mulch cover having the width of 40 cm [winged tape] and without cover [tape without wing]). Significant interactions were observed between irrigation and moisture levels in some parameters such as number of leaves, stem fresh and dry weight and 100-seed weight, although no significant interaction were observed among the other parameters. The maximum grain yield was obtained in treatment with 80% water requirement with average weight of 13650 kg ha-1, however, it had no no meaningful difference with 100% water requirement treatment. The maximum water use efficiency was observed in treatment of 60% water requirement, with 2.81 kg/m3. Between irrigation methods, the winged method increased 13% both of the grain yield and water use efficiency compared to those with the non-winged method of irrigation in this study, which can be attributed to the reduced evaporation from the soil surface.