Scientia Agriculturae Sci. Agri.

www.pscipub.com/SA 11 (1), 2015: 38-41

E-ISSN: 2310-953X / P-ISSN: 2311-0228 © PSCI Publications
DOI: 10.15192/PSCP.SA.2015.11.1.3841

Water Use Efficiency of potato crop irrigated under Tunisian

climatic condition
Mguidich Belhaj Amel1,2, Ghazouani Hiba1, M’Hamdi Douh Boutheina1, et Boujelben Abdehamid1
1. Department of Genius of Horticultural Systems and Environment, Higher Institute of Agronomy, BP 47, Chott Mariem
4042, University of Sousse, Tunisia.
2. Regional Field Crops Research Center (CRRGC) Béja Tunisia: B. P. 350 Béja 9000 – Tunisia
Corresponding Author email: amelmguidiche@yahoo.fr

Paper Information ABSTRACT

Field experiment was conducted at the Higher Institute of Agronomy of
Received: 7 April, 2015 Chott Mariem (Tunisia) during the growing season 2014 to investigate the
effects of water quality and irrigation doses on agronomic parameters and
Accepted: 19 june, 2015 water use efficiency (WUE) to produce potato (Solanum tuberosum L.).
Irrigation management treatments were fresh and saline waters
Published: 20 July, 2015 respectively 1 and 4 dS/ m. Experiment was conducted on four treatment
T1 and T2 irrigated with water have a electric conductivity of 1 dS/m
Citation respectively with100% of ET0 and 50% of ET0, T3 and T4 the same
management but irrigated by saline water. The objective of this study was
Amel MB, Hiba G, Boutheina MHD, Abdehamid B. to show the effect water salinity on plant’s growth, leaf area, yield and
2015. Water Use Efficiency of potato crop irrigated under water use efficiency of potato. Statistical analysis showed that the degree
Tunisian climatic condition. Scientia Agriculturae, 11 (1), of salinity has a highly significant effect on the plants yield and water use
38-41. Retrieved from www.pscipub.com (DOI: efficiency.
10.15192/PSCP.SA.2015.11.1.3841)

© 2015 PSCI Publisher All rights reserved.

Key words: Potato, subsurface drip irrigation, Water use efficiency, saline water.

INTRODUCTION
In Tunisia, the scarcity of water for irrigation and the quality of available resources make it necessary to adopt
strategies of water management aimed to increase water use efficiency. If from one side, choosing an appropriate irrigation
system, like a well designed subsurface drip system can ensure high values of water distribution uniformity, increasing
water use efficiency requires that irrigation scheduling account for actual crop water requirement, depending on soil, plant,
climate and other local conditions.
`Decreasing water availability has led to research on the water use requirements of most agronomic crops, as well
as the yield and quality impacts of deficit irrigation (Basal et al., 2009; Dagdelen et al., 2009; DeTar, 2008; Howell et al.,
2004; Pettigrew, 2004;).
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the most important crops in the world’s various agricultural production
volume, after wheat, rice and corn (Fabeiro et al., 2001). Potatoes are amongst the world's main food crops and their
demand is increasing at a greater rate than many other food crops (FAO, 1995) Due to its sparse and shallow root system,
potato is very sensitive to water stress and tuber yield may be considerably reduced by soil water deficits (Porter et al.,
1999). Potatoes are relatively sensitive to salinity (Maas and Hoffman, 1977), particularly in the early growth stages
(Levy, 1992; Nadler and Heuer, 1995). About 74% of the normal yield of a cultivar can be obtained under surface
irrigation with water salinity of 2±4 dS/m (Paliwal and Yadav, 1980). In general, potato yields have been known to
decrease as salinity increases with either surface irrigation water of 1±2 dS/m (Paliwal and Yadav, 1980; Van Hoorn et al.,
1993) or drip irrigation water of 3±4 dS/m (Singh et al., 1978; Levy, 1992). However, the effect of salinity level of
irrigation water depends on the cultivar (Zhang et al., 1993). This study was conducted at the Higher Institue of Agronomy
of Chott Mariem, Tunsia. It carried out to determine water quality and quantity effect’s on agronomic parameters of
potato.

Materiel and methods

Experimental site
Experiments were carried out at the Higher Institute of Agronomy of Chott Mariem, Tunisia (Longitude 10º38′E,
Latitude 35º55′N, altitude 15 m). The climate is tropically Mediterranean characterized by annual precipitation of 230 mm
and an annual evaporation of 2190 mm from a free water surface. Soil is sandy loam (clay=3.7%,silt=91.1% and
sand=5.2%), bulk density of soil was found to be 1.61 g cm -3 for the layer à 0-80 cm. Potatoes a “Solanum tuberosum L.”
 Sci. Agri. 11 (1), 2015: 38-41

cultivar Spunta, was seeded on January 15; plants were spaced 40 cm along the rows, with distance between the rows
equal to 80 cm. Experiments were carried out in 2014 on four plots with two quality of water; the first plot irrigated with
water characterized by electrical conductivity of 1.0 dS/ m T1 with 100% ET0 , T2 with 50% ET0, the second plot was
irrigated with water had 4 dS /mcompound T3 with 100% ET0 and T4 with 50% ET0.
Water use efficiency (WUE) was identified as one of the key water use indicators derived in the study of
sustainable irrigated agriculture indicators (LE, 1997). The definition focuses farmer’s attention on both water use and
production and provides an indication of whether the resource has been used effectively. Water use efficiency (WUE) was
calculated as the ratio of potato yield (Y) to total crop water use (WU) as suggested by (Howell, 2000).

Analysis
Collected data in this study were analyzed and examined statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA) from
the Statistical Analysis System (SPSS 17.0 for Windows) appropriate for a randomized complete block design. Means
were compared by the Student Test at the 5% level of significance. The mean values of each treatment are designated by
letters (a, b) which represent the significance degree of the difference between the means.
The letter "a" means the highest average; "b" is the lowest

Results And Discussion

Plant’s Growth
Fig1 showed the average height in cm for treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4, statistical analysis has not given a
significant difference for the four treatments, so irrigation regime and salt water don’t affect plant height. The average
height of T1 is 62.66± 1.15cm the lowest height was in T4 with 55.66±3.51 cm. The mechanisms by which salinity affects
growth of a plant depend on the time scale over which the plant is exposed to salt. Munns (2005) developed the ‘two-phase
growth response to salinity’ for better understanding the temporal differences in the responses of plants to salinity. The
first phase of growth reduction is a quicker process which is due to osmotic effect. The second phase, on the other hand, is
much slower process which is due to the salt accumulation in leaves, leading to salt toxicity in the plants, the uptake of salt
ions depends on the plant growth stage, genetic characters and environmental factors like temperature, relative humidity
and light intensity. Whereas according to analyzes made by Mguidich et al (2014) on irrigated potato crop with 100% ET0
for the same quality of water, the quality of irrigation water has a highly significant effect on growth the potato height.

Figure 1. Average plant’s heights for treatment T1, T2, T3 and T4

Leaf Area
Figure 2 showed the change in the average leaf area for the treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4.The highest values of
leaf area were recorded at the irrigated plot by water had an electrical conductivity of 1dS/m providing complete irrigation
doses (100% ET0). Indeed the average leaf area T1 is 3503 ± 52 cm 1058.52 / plant. However, leaf area does not exceed
1804.02 ± 1095.78 cm² / plant, 609.61 ± 750.32 cm² / plant, 1275 80 ± 1078.21 cm / plant respectively for T2, T3 and T4.
The SNK test showed a highly significant effect of irrigation regime and water salinity on the leaf area of the plant and
were classified into two treatment groups, one including T1 (a) and the second comprising T2, T3 and T4 (b). These
results showed that improved water availability in quantity and in quality for the potato crop allows an improvement in the
leaf area. Leaf area in T4 (1500 cm²) was most important than T3 (800 cm²): For treatment T3 we have given 100% of
ET0 with salt water in which accumulation salts in the limit of the wetting front and consequently the plant requires more
energy to extract water from the soil. These results are consistent with that found by Mguidich et al (2014).

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 Sci. Agri. 11 (1), 2015: 38-41

Figure 2. Leaf area for treatments T1, T2 T3 and T4

Potato Yield
The average yield of the potato crop is of the order of 39121.9 ± 6965.3; 24945.7 ± 10078.34; 19504.3 ± 13267
and 22010.15 ± 9451.3 kg/ha, respectively, for the treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4 (Fig.3). The SNK test showed a highly
significant effect of dose and water salinity on the yield of the plant and were classified into two treatment groups, one
including T1 (a) and the second comprising T2, T3 and T4 (b). Irrigation of T4 by salt water with 50% of ET0 provides
better performance than the T3 because irrigation with a saline and 50% ET0 allows tolerable intake salts where the plant
requires less energy to extract water reflecting a greater leaf area than T3 and consequently a better course of
photosynthesis hence the increase in yield compared to T3. Patel et al(2000) show that, successful production of potatoes
with brackish water having salinities from 1 to 9 dS/m indicates the possibility of using brackish water having salinity
even higher than this. Subirrigation systems may prove to be quite useful for food production with poor quality irrigation
water in the areas where monsoon rains can flush-out salts accumulated in the crop root zone. The reduction in leaf area,
yield and yield components under saline conditions were also due to reduced growth as a result of decreased water uptake,
toxicity of sodium and chloride in the shoot cell as well as reduced photosynthesis (Ali et al;2004)

Figure 3. Potato yield for treatment T1, T2, T3 and T4

Water Use Efficiency

The irrigation system efficiency reflects the interaction between irrigation and crop yield. Figures 4 showed the
water use efficiency of treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4. Statistical analysis was given a significant difference between the
treatments and can be classified into two treatment groups, one including T1, T2 and T4 (a) and the second including T3
(b) for treatment T1 irrigation with a water salinity 1dS / m and 100% of the irrigation dose. Average water use efficiency
was 11.5 ± 2.16 Kg/m3 .water use efficiency for treatment T4 was 10. 82 ± 4, 2 Kg/m3, so we can considered the condition
of treatment T4 was the best with 50% ET0 and water electrical conductivity 4 dS/m . The major problem of agriculture is
the scarcity and quality of water resources. So the water quality has no direct effect on water use efficiency. (Phene et al.,
1987), showed that the irrigation system has great effect on water use efficiency. Subsurface drip irrigation improved

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 Sci. Agri. 11 (1), 2015: 38-41

WUE, since evaporation from the SDI systems was minimal; transpiration increased which improved evaporative cooling
of the crop canopy, increased stomatal opening, and photosynthesis. In addition, subsurface drip irrigation allows uniform
delivery of water directly to the plant root zone. This can increase use efficiency over other irrigation methods.

Figure 4. Water use efficiency for treatments T1, T2 T3 and T4

Conclusion
This study was expected to treat the effects of two water qualities on the physiological and agronomic parameters
of potato conducted under subsurface drip irrigation system in Tunisian climatic. The largest yield is obtained in the
treatment with T1 39 t / ha even for leaf area was significantly higher for the T1, against by the quantity and quality of
water does not affect the height of the plant.T4 had the best water use efficiency 10 82 ± 4, 2 Kg/ m3.

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