Saving 45% of Irrigation Water of Date Palm Tree Plantations Using Soil Amendments in UAE

Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) tolerates relatively harsh climatic and soil condition in Arab countries. The annual total irrigation water requirements for Date palm trees in the Arab regions range from 73.0 to 95 (m3/tree). Also, approximately 70-80% of global freshwater consumption is used in the agricultural sector, yet water use efficiency in many countries is below 50%. Today, some 2.8 billion people live in water-scarce areas, but by 2030, it is expected that about half of the world’s population will live in water stressed areas. Water saving amendments, are natural soil mixes produced from recycled date palm fronds and farm wastes to produce Compost and Bio char in order to be used to reduce the amount of water needed in irrigation for date palms. When soil amendments mixed in the soil, the material can retain great amounts of water per kg of product which will be beneficial as water reservoir especially during periods of drought. In this experiment we used three natural different water conservative materials to study their effects on saving irrigation water under date palm plantations, the Three different water saving products e.g. Compost©, Bio Char (BC) and water saving (WS). Five different levels of water saving materials e.g. control, 5 kg/tree, 10 kg / tree, 15 kg / tree and 20 kg/tree were used. Our results recommend that, addition of 15 kg of water saving amendments per tree can reduce the water needed for irrigation by 45%. This research paper focuses mainly on introducing natural means of managing irrigation water through soil conditioning, using water saving amendments. Economic Values of water saved are evaluated, and we found that compost and bio char can save 6.35 m3/tree and 11.35 m3/tree of water per year respectively, while water saver product can save 31.90 m3 of water/tree per year. By calculating the cost saved, compost and bio char can save 5.40$ and 9.65$/tree/year respectively, while water saver product can save 27.13 $/tree/year. Therefore,  soil conditioning using these materials can save huge amounts of water in agricultural   sector including date palm as well as other plants in addition to improved soil properties.   This study was undertaken to show how much water can be saved when farmers recycle farm wastes in the form of soil conditioners, and its impact on farm profitability and environmental protection.