Estimating Silage Maize Crop Coefficient and Water Stress Coefficient under Different Irrigation Levels using Soil Water Balance Method (Case Study: Varamin Region)

The Crop coefficient (Kc) is one of the most important parameters in irrigation scheduling. The purpose of this study is to determine silage maize Kc under different irrigation levels using the soil water balance method and presenting the equations for estimating silage maize crop coefficients in terms of the days after sowing during the summer growing season in the Varamin region. The Kc was calculated from the division of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) to reference evapotranspiration (ETo). Soil water balance equation was used to determine silage maize ETa during the growing season. An experiment in the form of split-strip plots based on a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted in 2019. The main factor included three levels of irrigation, supplying 100, 80, and 60% of maize water requirement (I1, I2, and I3, respectively) and the sub-main factor included two types of irrigation management: pulsed (P) and continuous (C). The value of ETa calculated from the soil water balance method for different treatments ranged from 319.6 to 242.5 mm. Also, the value of irrigation depth during the growing season for full and deficit irrigation treatments ranged from 325 to 195 mm. The mean values of silage maize crop coefficient for initial, middle and final growing stages of full irrigation treatments were 0.27, 1.04, and 0.89, respectively. The water stress coefficients were calculated for deficit irrigation treatments during the growing season. Statistical analysis between ETc calculated from Kc values obtained from the proposed equation in this study and Ks values and Eta obtained from the water balance method indicated that the proposed Kc equation and Ks values in this study have good accuracy in the research area. Therefore, the extracted Ks and proposed Kc equations can be used to estimate silage maize evapotranspiration in the studied region with good accuracy.