Effect of Water Deficit at Different Growth Periods on Yield, Quality and Water Productivity of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) under Central Sudan Agro-climatic Zone

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during two consecutive seasons of 2020/21 and 2021/22 at the Sugarcane Research Center Farm – Gunied, (Central Sudan Agro-climatic zone), to evaluate the effect of water deficit irrigation at different growth periods on yield, quality and water productivity of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Variety Co 6806. The study was designed in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times. Irrigation deficit treatments were applied when available soil moisture content (ASMC) reached 25% in the root zone at eight different growth periods. The eight growth periods were begun from plant age 51th day to day100th at which the first deficit irrigation treatment was applied (DT1), age from day101th to day 150th the second deficit irrigation treatment was applied (DT2), age from day 151th to day 200th the third deficit irrigation treatment was applied (DT3), then at the same growth period length of 50 days fallow the other treatments till DT8 the eight irrigation deficit treatment was applied at crop age from day 401th to day 450th. These were compared with optimum irrigation (DT0) which was irrigated at 60% ASMC at the root zone. Results showed that all deficit irrigation treatments (DT1 to DT8) recorded significant cane and sugar yield reduction than the control (DT0) in the two growing seasons. In this sense, DT1, DT2, DT3, and DT8 treatments have recorded the highest cane and water productivity. Therefore, for sugarcane crop planting in November deficit irrigation must be avoided at the crop age of 6.7th month to age 13.3th month.