Drip Irrigation System for Production of Strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duch.) under Shambat Conditions, Sudan

Abstract

A drip irrigation system was designed and installed at the
Demonstration Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum–
Shambat, during the seasons 2001/02 and 2002/03 for the irrigation of
strawberry. Irrigation treatments were drip irrigation at intervals of one,
two and three days. These were compared with surface irrigation every
six days. The study included testing of the system design criteria namely,
distribution efficiency, amount of water applied and effect of irrigation
intervals on growth and yield of strawberry. The results showed that with
the drip system less water was used and high distribution efficiency
(90.8%) was achieved at installation time, which decreased to 90.1% after
the end of the second season. The water applied was only 25% of the
volume applied by furrow irrigation. Irrigation every day and every two
days resulted in greater vegetative and reproductive growth of strawberry,
reflected in greater number of leaves, runners, flowers and fruits, with
significantly (P  0.05) higher total yield than the other treatments.