Evaluation of the effects of nitrogen and alternate furrow irrigation method on water use efficiency in cultivation of Quinoa plant

To investigate the effects of furrow irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer on yield and yield components of Quinoa, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2018 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Treatments included three irrigation methods (furrow irrigation (FI), fixed alternate furrow irrigation (FAFI), and variable alternate furrow irrigation (VAFI)) and three-level of nitrogen fertilizing (50, 100, and 200 Kg/ha). The yield of quinoa was increased +62.5 and +70.8 percent under the use of 100 and 200 Kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer (compared to 50 Kg/ha using nitrogen fertilizer). The plant height was decreased -9.8 and -9.3 percent under using FAFI and VAFI, respectively. The result showed that the lowest and the highest of grain yield with 14.3 g and 33.4 g in FAFI50 and VAFI200, respectively. Generally, the use of variable alternative furrow irrigation + 200 Kg/ha nitrogen (VAFI200) was decreased irrigation water consumption and increasing water use efficiency, therefore with this treatment in Mashhad climatic conditions can be produced a reliable yield.