Abstract

OJEDA-BUSTAMANTE, Waldo; SIFUENTES-IBARRA, Ernesto  and  UNLAND-WEISS, Helene. Integral programming for corn irrigation in northern Sinaloa, México. Agrociencia [online]. 2006, vol.40, n.1, pp.13-25. ISSN 2521-9766.

Irrigation scheduling for large irrigation zones requires models that are easily implemented in computer systems. An effective scheduling should allow for adjusting the frequency and quantity of water applied based on soil, environmental, crop and irrigation management factors. In order to improve irrigation scheduling in corn, the standard meteorological variables and energy balance components were measured to estimate the crop water requirement for corn grown in the Valle del Fuerte, Sinaloa, México. The advantage is to generate automatically the corn irrigation programs according to the phenology of the crop, using the growing-degree day concept. The results obtained were applied to verify and update the following parameters, used to generate irrigation schedules as a function of growing-degree days: crop coefficient, rooting depth, and factor of soil water depletion. The present study shows the feasibility of using models to express irrigation scheduling parameters as a function of degree days when applied to large irrigation districts. The effect of varying planting dates on the irrigation schedule was studied, considering the phenology of the maize crop. An irrigation scheduling application for low water availability is also presented. Due to the soil type and low irrigation efficiency of the area of study, it was possible to reduce and redistribute irrigations without a noticeable decrease in the normal yields, with phenology forecasting using the degree-day concept. A corn water consumption of 44 cm was calculated, with a maximum crop coefficient of 1.25 and a cumulative value of 1451 growing-degree days from planting to maturity, for intermediate corn varieties sown in northern Sinaloa.

Keywords : Irrigation scheduling; crop coefficient; water consumption; degree days; rooting depth.

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