The study was carried out at the Experimental Farm of Moshtohor Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University during the winter seasons of 2018 /2019 and 2019/2020 to evaluate the efficiency of surface drip irrigation system for saving water under three irrigation water management strategies (full irrigation requirement (FI) of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) (control), sustainable deficit irrigation (DI) 75 and 50 % of FI,), yield and fruit quality of potato cultivar “Spunta” under different tillage levels (zero, 25, 50 and 100%) tillage depths. The results confirmed that the conversional tillage (100%) (40-50 cm depth) has the best effect on plant growth and yield among all tillage levels. The DI of 75% had the highest growth and yield parameters in both seasons. Respect to the interaction, potato plants that received 75% of ETc under conversional tillage (100%) recorded the highest yield and plant Morphological properties. A gradual increase in tuber yield/fed and water productivity were observed with the increase of tillage degree across all irrigation water levels. The highest tuber yield (17.19 ton/fed) and the highest water productivity (19.34 kg/m3) for plants that received 75% ETc under the conversional tillage. This means that when utilizing complete ploughing with 75% of the irrigation water requirements, it is possible to conserve around 25% of the irrigation water used while still getting the highest yield. |
