Journal Algérien des Régions Arides
Volume 13, Numéro 1, Pages 17-26
2016-06-01

In-field Assessment Of Smallholder Irrigation Systems In Southern Tunisia



Authors : Thabet Mohamed .

Abstract

As many countries of Mediterranean basin, Tunisian water resources becomes limited and insufficient to satisfy different competing demands. Agriculture currently uses beyond 80% of total available resources. As water is the most critical resource for sustainable development notably in agriculture, the need for a consistent rational management of this resource has become needful. Furthermore the irrigation efficiency remains very low, only 55% of applied water is used by crops. Increasing the water use efficiency is essential to overcome water shortage in these conditions of climate change. The present paper is devoted to analyse some irrigation efficiency data after more than two decades efforts to modernize irrigation and improving its efficiency. These data were collected from private farms located in Djorf peninsula which is a part of south arid region of Tunisia. It is a very sensitive area to climatic hazards where resources are scarce and the aquifer is threatened by the risk of seawater intrusion. A series of irrigation events and farmers practices were observed. Applied volumes of water was measured and compared to the peak ETo of the season. Information regarding irrigation practices (frequency, sowing date, soil tillage and amendment) was collected. Calculations showed that in some cases, mean daily water supplies reach twice the daily peak evapotranspiration. In fact, to avoid any stress to their crops, farmers supplies large amounts of water exceeding irrigation needs and leaching requirements. As soils has sandy texture, a good part of supplied water percolate deep beyond the root zone of crops. Although this water helps leaching, its amount far exceeds leaching requirements. At the field level, some other irrigation efficiency parameters were measured. Conveyance efficiency is excellent because water source point is always near irrigated field, application efficiency ranges from 22 to 100 %. The general average of storage efficiency was of 59%.

Keywords

arid, irrigation efficiency, climate, soil, water use efficiency, evapotranspiration

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