Water-yield relations of processing potato under surface and shallow subsurface drip irrigation in temperate climatic environment

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted to study the effects of surface (SDI) and shallow subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI) on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tuber yield, evapotranspiration, water use efficiency (WUE), and yield response factor (Ky). The experiment was carried out under semiarid climatic conditions in the Vojvodina region in 2020. The trial was established as a block design and adapted to technical specifications of drip irrigation system. In addition, the nonirrigated, control variant was also included in the trial. Irrigation was scheduled on the basis of water balance method. Daily water used on plants evapotranspiration (ETd) was calculated by multiplying reference evapotranspiration (ETo) with crop coefficients (kc). Kc values were 0.5, 0.7, 1.1, 0.9, 0.7 from planting to emergence, early vegetative development, tuber initiation, tuber enlargement and senescence, respectively. The potato processing variety ‘Taurus’ was used for the experiment. Obtained results indicate a significant effect of irrigation on potato yield compared to the nonirrigated variant (38.33 t ha−1) but differences in the yield using the SDI (58.06 t ha−1) and the SSDI (61.15 t ha−1) were not significant. In the study period, seasonal evapotranspiration in irrigation conditions (ETm) and in rainfed control variant (ETa) was 478 mm and 319 mm respectively. IWUE values were 9.39, 10.85 kg m-3 and 27.64, 29.09 kg m-3 but ETWUE values were 12.40, 14.35 kg m-3 and 12.14, 12.79 kg m-3 for SDI and SSDI respectively. The seasonal yield response factor (Ky) of 1.03 and 1.12 for SDI and SSDI indicates that potato can be grown without irrigation in the temperate climate of Vojvodina.