The Effects of Two Irrigation Management on Growth Indices of Silage Maize in arid and semi-arid climates

Water Scarcity is one of the main problems for crop production in arid and semi-arid climates of Iran. In this study, in order to investigate the effect of two types of irrigation management on yield and growth indices of silage maize in arid and semi-arid climate, an experiment in the form of split-strip plots based on a randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted. The main factor included four levels of irrigation, supplying 120, 100, 80 and 60% of maize water requirement (I2, I1, I3 and I4) and the sub-main factor included two types of irrigation management: pulsed (P) and continuous (C). Experimental results showed that pulse management increased leaf area index, crop growth ratio, net assimilation ratio and relative growth ratio in I2, I1 and I3 treatments in the silk stage, while in I4 treatment due to the increasing intensity of water stress, reduced growth indices. The highest fresh and biological yield of silage maize was in PI2 treatment that was 29% higher than CI1 treatment. According to the results, in regions faced with water scarcity, by applying PI3 treatment, we can achieve a performance similar to CI1 treatment and save 20% of water consumption.