Assessment of water productivity of sprinkler and surface irrigation systems in Silage maize fields (case study in Behbahan)

The main objective of this project was to measure water consumption of silage maize under farm management. Thus, the volume of water consumed for Silage maize in Behbahan was measured in sprinkler and surface irrigation systems and various water resources during one season (2016-2017). The measured values of the net water requirement were estimated by the Penman-Monteith method and also compared with the national document values. The average yield in surface and sprinkler irrigation systems was 58329 kgha-1. Water productivity varied from 3.91 to 13.71 kg per cubic meter in all fields. The average of application efficiency in sprinkler irrigation systems was 73.3%. The average amount of water consumed by Silage maize in surface irrigation farms was 9778 and in farms irrigated by sprinkler systems was 6991 cubic meters per hectare. Comparison of the average of net water requirement calculated by the Penmann-Montieth and those obtained from the national water document using the T test showed a significant difference being 440 and 582 mm, respectively. Comparison of the Pearson correlation coefficients showed that the trend of changes in water productivity with trend of changes in maize yield was significant at 5% level. Obviously, by increasing the application efficiency, water productivity has increased.