Investigating the volume of applied water and water productivity in sweet lime orchards of Fars province

About three quarters of the country's sweet lime orchards are located in Fars province. Having sufficient information on the amount of irrigation water and water productivity of these gardens can lead to better management of water resources and increase water productivity. In this research, the water productivity and the amount of water given in 60 sweet lime orchards in six regions of Fars province were measured during 2021. Among the selected orchards, due to differences in irrigation management, soil salinity and other factors, the volume of irrigation water varied from about 10000 to 24000 m3/ha per year. The average total volume of irrigation water was 14712 m3/ha. In terms of the regional average, the lowest and highest amount of irrigation water was related to Ghir-Karzin and Darab regions with 13023 and 17079 m3/ha per year, respectively. The productivity of irrigation water in selected gardens was between 0.71 and 2.23 kg/m3 and on average 1.40 kg/m3. Comparing the volume of irrigation water with the gross water requirement showed that in the year of conducting the research, these differences were statistically significant in Lar and Darab regions. In general, the average difference between the volume of irrigation water and the annual gross water requirement in the province was 569 m3/ha, which was not statistically significant. But on average, the volume of irrigation water was 2288 m3/ha more than the long-term gross water requirement, which was a significant difference. Therefore, it is necessary to apply irrigation scheduling and accurately determine the required water to increase the productivity of sweet lime orchards in Fars province.