PERFORMANCE OF DEVELOPED SURFACE IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN ASSUIT

This study was conducted at the On-farm Irrigation Development Project in Assuit Governorate, Upper Egypt. The objectives of this work were to study the performance of the developed surface irrigation system and comparing it with the traditional surface irrigation system. The performance indicators were land losses, conveyance efficiency, irrigation time, application efficiency, filed water use efficiency and crop yield. Where the most important results could be summarized as follows: a) The saved agricultural land through using buried pipes as developed Mesqa about 2.34 % and in the lining canal it 1.51 % compared with traditional earth Mesqa which were occupied by the channels. b) Average conveyance efficiencies were as 81.41 %, 92.52 %, and 98.61 % for earthen Mesqa, lining Mesqa and buried pipes respectively. c) Average application efficiencies were as 58.82 %, 79.07 % and 82.09 % for earthen Mesqa, lining Mesqa and buried pipes respectively. d) Irrigation time decreased 32.75 % by using buried pipes Mesqa and 20.91 % by using lining Mesqa compared with earthen Mesqa. e) The productivity of wheat and maize increased 18.75 and 21.4 % under buried pipe respectively. Also, wheat and maize was 9.38 % and 10.7 % respectively under lining Mesqa compared with earthen Mesqa. f) The values of field water use efficiency (FWUE) for wheat were 3.23 kg ∕ m3 , 1.72 kg ∕ m3 and 1.49 kg ∕ m3 under buried pipe, lining Mesqa and traditional surface irrigation respectively. and,  2.65 kg ∕ m3, 1.38 kg ∕ m3 and 1.21 kg ∕ m3 under buried pipe, lining Mesqa and traditional surface irrigation respectively.